December 2007
You would be surprised what you can learn by just taking a walk. I needed to take care of some errands, so I took a short walk from our office. A trip that I thought would take just a few minutes became a treacherous trek indeed.
The sidewalk was in terrible condition. Trees had completely uprooted some of the sections making them nearly impassable. I had to hang on to the trees to step up on to the damaged sidewalk in some places, so I could get through the area. I started to wish I had four-wheel drive shoes. I still don’t know how I made it through without falling.
I thought of my friends who use wheelchairs and realized that there was no way they would have been able to make it using the sidewalk; they would have had to travel in the street. I thought about an email that I’d just received about the importance of accessible sidewalks and other pedestrian rights of way (i.e. crosswalks and curb ramps).
Disability Rights Advocates “DRA”, a disability rights law firm received numerous complaints from people with disabilities from around the State about the inaccessibility of pedestrian rights of way. They reviewed many of the complaints and found that many of the inaccessible rights of way were under the control of the California Department of Transportation, “Caltrans”.
Caltrans controls the California state highway system and is responsible for the proper installation and maintenance of the pedestrian rights of way found along state highways. Those rights of way are usually found along state highways where they become city streets, but also include sidewalks associated with the on and off ramps to state highways.
DRA revealed a number of access barriers as a result of their formal investigation. Those barriers included missing or inadequate curb ramps at intersections, obstacles such as light poles and broken pavement along the length of the sidewalks and a lack of detectable warnings (which are those yellow truncated domes located on the curb). They are used so that people with vision disabilities can determine where the sidewalk ends and the street begins.
DRA filed a class action lawsuit against Caltrans on behalf of all Californians with mobility and vision disabilities after negotiation attempts failed. They would like to hear from you about your experiences with pedestrian rights of way, (i.e. sidewalks, crosswalks and curb ramps) and Park and Ride facilities which are also under the control of Caltrans.
You may contact DRA at caltrans@dralegal.org to share your experiences and/or find out what pedestrian rights of way and Park and Ride facilities are under the control of Caltrans.