My rage for the less able - let me show you it!

[logansrogue]

Today I went to help out my sister, her husband and their disabled son, and every family that suffers what they suffer. There was a forum where representatitives of Liberal, Labor, the Greens and an Independent were present to give speeches for the forthcoming state elections, and to answer our questions.

Never have I heard so much half-hearted apologetic blame-shuffling and excuse-pushing as I did that day. People asked why they weren't getting BASIC SERVICES, again and again and all they could say was "Keep writing letters, don't give up, just keep making appointments and talking to them..." I could see the frustration plain as day on my sister's face. She stood up and spoke out of turn cause she couldn't get her message across (it was so cool) and she said that carers were being exploited, and that they'd been asking for help for decades and NOT GETTING IT.

When you go to vote this weekend, please look into the policies for the disabled with your local representative. I know it's a bit of an effort for you, but if you saw the stories of some of these people who have no help, caring for their severely disabled kids and getting NO relief... it breaks your heart. One woman today couldn't get sign language taught to her deaf daughter (AUSLAN) without paying FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS of her own money. Just for the RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE. THIS IS WRONG.

Most of our buses are not equipped to take on wheelchairs safely.

One blind man had to take the HARNESS OFF HIS SEEING EYE DOG to get on the fucking bus!

THIS SHIT HAS TO STOP!

It makes me so mad. Western Australia is a rich state. Australia is a prospering country. Instead of huge new stadiums and property developments and splashing out on all these frivolous things - why can't we take care of our own? God, humanity makes me want to break shit sometimes.

Comments

[asweetdownfall.livejournal.com]

My god..that is so ridiculous and horrible.

There are just no words for it. :/

[secrets-n-lies.livejournal.com]

thankyou so much for posting this
i will definitely be taking this into consideration when i vote

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Is it still most of our buses?

I thought all the newer ones (and by newer I mean the ones that are lower down and don't have openable windows and are usually silver and green) had wheelchair access and that they were slowly phasing the old white and green openable window ones. But currently phasing out is difficult because you know, rapidly increasing demand for public transport along current routes and increasing numbers of routes, through newer suburbs making that hard.

Anyway I thought the newer ones outnumber the older ones, particularly on western suburbs and older routes (which have older populations along them). But this is just my observations, which is biased towards western and northern suburbs quite horribly.

Anyway that's me getting distracted (I do actually get entirely get the rage and agree at how retarded the system is, my mother teaches ED support in a rural area. Its ridiculous the amount of trouble they have to go through sometimes to get basic needs for the severely disabled students, and that's before you take into account the trouble makers that get passed off onto her, because they are too hard for the normal teachers and students to have to deal with).

[sir-devans.livejournal.com]

'...humanity makes me want to break shit sometimes.'
You are too good for this world

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

increasing numbers of routes

*falls of chair laughing*

When the Mandurah Train Line was bought in, they actually *cut* several routes. And I'm not talking replacing the route that used to go, say, from Rockingham to the CBD. I'm talking about routes going through the suburbs to the train station. The route near my parents, which once upon a time ran 7 days a week and up to midnight most nights, now runs Monday ~ Friday and stops after 7pm. And that's only the beginning...

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

And that's for the abled folk. Can you imagine how shit the service is if you're in a wheelchair? You guys don't even WANNA KNOW.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, when the Mandurah train line came through, they did cut and change several services. I lived south of the river at that point and took part in some smaller community development things when they were talking about which routes to cut and how to change current ones to take advantage of the trainline. They were never going to get that perfect (one of the many problems with public transport, which will never be all that awesome in a spread out city like Perth).

And I believe I was talking about total number increased, used to cope with the growth in the entire Perth metro area. Just because services have changed and been lessened in one area, does not mean a total decrease, nor does it mean there's less pressure on the system. Especially in areas which are seen as having its public transport improved (though, the way they made some changes seems to contradict the idea of wanting less people driving to the train station).

Also, I think you'll find there was a stated policy (this was before the train system came in, probably around 2005/2006) to focus on increasing total services to outer suburbs areas, rather than focusing on increasing and maintaining, nighttime services. The reason at least in part was lack of buses and lack of drivers, especially at night in less well-off areas partly at least because drivers don't want to do it. This along with rapidly increasing urban sprawl (yay boomtimes) which demands its own public transport requirements putting even pressure on a system, which simply doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with massive increases.

Of course all that rant said, my planning understanding of it is just at its beginnings and my transperthgeekness is slightly out of date, given I went and moved house, as well as bought a motorbike, which has taken a bit of my focus off the buses (and meant less chatting to cute busdrivers). But yeah, Mandurah trainline brought in to deal with sprawl to the south of the river, that didn't entirely make up for the increase in sprawl and pressure on bus routes in other areas of the city, which also needed to be catered for.

Did I miss anything? Other then how much it sucks, which believe me I know, but bitterness and suckness* doesn't change bring about immediate easy solutions.

*Suckness of the services, not the people using them. I just realised that was vague.

Edited because I was worried about being unclear.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Or elderly. A big chunk of the people who use the service near my mum's place are elderly people going to the shops. When my mum rang up to complain about the cut in services, the person told her 'they can get taxis' and fobbed her off.

My mum has her problems as well. There's something wrong with her (docs can't figuer it out) that means her legs hurt a lot and it tires her out. If there is no bus service/ bus doesn't come and mum can't afford the taxi (at least $10 each way) and Dad's at work - she has to walk for over half an hour to get to the shops. With that and the shopping itself, she's out for the count by the time she gets back.