By Prince Frederick
In terms of accessibility, the bus shelters across Chennai present a picture best described as schizophrenic, being ridden with contradictions.
On one hand, 鈥渟pecial bus stops鈥, those with floors whose heights are matched with those of low-floor buses, are dotting the landscape.
The idea is that of the wheelchair-bound finding themselves moving fluidly from the bus stop to the low-floor bus and vice versa. And on the other hand, there are bus shelters with floors of a height that would have even the able-bodied stretching their lower limbs to a degree that does not make for comfort, and in the case of seniors, even safety.
On certain sections of the East Coast Road where the road widening and the allied works (those pertaining to construction of stormwater drains and pavements) have been completed, utilities have been raised. In Pallavakkam, a new bus shelter has been raised at the Pallavakkam Church stop on a spanking new pavement, stylishly tiled.
But the pavement which doubles as the floor for the bus shelter is at a height that is anti-accessibility, if one can call it that.
It is certainly well over 1.5 foot high, and not too far from being two feet high.