Eleventh Gets Curb Ramps, Problems Still Exist

Many of the city’s intersections have curb cuts to aid those of us that use wheelchairs and mobility scooters. Unfortunately many intersections have the cuts only on a single side of the street. When streets are improved using federal funds the accessibility is to be upgraded — those sides of the street missing ramps are to get them.

Last month (June 08) several downtown streets were resurfaced but missing ramps were not done prior. I don’t know the source of the funds so its possible that it was Kosher to ignore them. On June 26th I wrote:

One of the streets that was resurfaced was 11th. A few corners along 11th still lack an ADA ramp. For example the city has the top two floors at the building at 1015 Locust which is on the NE corner of 11th & Locust. The same corner lacks an ADA curb cut. The other three corners have cuts but that doesn’t help when the direction you want to go doesn’t.

Today the above is no longer the case.

Today I spotted new curb cuts at both 11th & Locust and 11th & Olive — both locations that were missing such ramps.

At Olive (above) the SE corner gets a ramp that will serve well for crossing Olive. For crossing 11th, however, the location forces the user into moving traffic. Certainly less than ideal. To be safer another ramp should be located to the left of the sewer inlet.

The block of Olive seen in the background above is between 11th & Tucker. It is one-way Eastbound in two travel lanes with the two outer lanes for on-street parking. With ramps like this one having the outside lane for parking rather than through traffic can be very helpful. In the above example, when the light changes and I’m crossing 11th I have to enter the outside lane to get where I can get across the street. Interestingly this is one of those odd blocks where Olive West of 11th has parking on both sides but East of 11th (to 10th) it has parking primarily on one side only.

The curb cut shown above at 11th & Olive is just out of view to the right in the image above. Two lanes of traffic suddenly opens to three for a single block between 11th and 10th, except for two on-street spaces just prior to 10th. This block could easily accommodate another 4-5 on-street spaces that would help generate much needed revenue for the city. Parked cars in this right lane would also serve as a buffer for pedestrians on the sidewalk as well as those of us entering the lane to cross with the flow of traffic.

But back to accessibility issues. Besides missing curb cuts the other problem I find is not with sidewalks but with crossing alleys:

The above is just one the numerous problems I encounter downtown. Besides the sitting water we have the steep slope up to the sidewalk on the opposite side. On the near side there is a hefty drop. So behind me is the new ramp at Olive and up ahead is another new ramp at Locust. With these conditions, however, I don’t know that I’ll go this way often.

Budgets are limited.  The city can’t make the ideal route for me.  I do know of two other downtown residents that also use these streets in wheelchairs.  I know of two more that don’t get out in the chairs the way some of us do.  It needs to be about connecting the dots not just a corner here and a corner there.