Autonomous vehicles, like trains or subways are indeed very useful for people with disabilities.
Luckily the train pulls up right next to my disabled grandpa’s house. And it drops him off right at the doctor’s office. No walking required!
Oh wait.
Most proper public transit rollouts also include point-to-point vans specifically made to haul disabled people around. Even the USA has these in some places!
Anywhere there is public transit must also provide ADA access which brings people from their home to their destination.
They do indeed. My area has them. However, those buses require riders to book a ride a day in advance, which is far from ideal. But even if that wasn’t the case, you’d have to wait for the bus to arrive, then you have an unknown transit time (depending on who else is being picked up and dropped off) to your destination.
There doesn’t seem to be a good option for disabled people’s mobility.
All we have to do is invest more to make it more convenient. Solutions like private autonomous cars are going to help people who are both wealthy and disabled. In the US that’s a rarity.
unknown transit time
So I guess it’s better to be stuck in a traffic jam together because there’s one car per person?
You’re getting downvoted but it’s a completely valid point.
Many people’s disabilities make public transport unusable.
This article is the written equivalent of the soyjak pointing meme. Adds no further insight and serves only to hype up a product that does not yet exist.
It does exist, it’s just trains, not cars.
Trains have drivers. Also, I can either take a train out of my city or into it. I can’t use a train within my city and it doesn’t take me grocery shopping either. My head hurts trying to imagine how you think a train is going to replace car.
It will never replace cars for people with disabilities.
Every single person who argues this in this thread doesn’t have a disability and is ignorant towards the challenges they face.
Had a family member who was disabled for 40 years.
Disabilities come in many shapes. For certain disabilities, sure a train/public transit might be inferior to cars.
However I’d say for a majority of cases, public transit is much more hospitable to disabled folks. Many disabilities make driving either impossible, massively impractical, or outright dangerous.
Many disabilities make driving either impossible, massively impractical, or outright dangerous.
This post is about autonomous vehicles, which will render this concern obsolete.
For many disabilities it’s useless due to the fact you still need to get to it to use it.
They’re saying both are useless for many. Not that driving is better in any way.
It’s also a “putting water in a pot over a flame will get you hot water” article… pretty obvious fact.
Brain transplants into completely healthy bodies could help too, but since neither are available right now, I don’t get what the purpose of this article is.
More investment in public transit would do this cheaper, better, and quicker.
In the US we have ADA funding for para transit as well as county and municipal funding. All we have to do is increase it to make paratransit more convenient for the disabled.
By sending them off to their maker?
We’re still not in a position for vehicles to be entrusted to someone who couldn’t physically intercede to take over control of the car in an emergency.
Or pass over them too.
