Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

The June 201 Access Exchange Newsletter  reports that Colombia is amongst world leaders in providing Accessible Bus Rapid Transit services for people with disabilities (PwDs).    Meanwhile in New Zealand, The NZ Tourism Guide (one of our largest tourism guide websites) advises that “most urban transport buses are not equipped to cater for the disabled.”    “If the world’s megacities are to be livable places in years to come, the Colombian approach to public transit is likely to be a big part of the solution. Access to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by passengers with disabilities, which means better access for everybody, is a cutting edge feature of this solution” says Tom Rickert of Access Exchange International. Rickert examined bus systems in Columbia during a visit as part of a larger World Bank project. For example, the BRT system in the city of Cali includes: 

• Level boarding, from enclosed stations with doors that open in tandem with the doors of high-capacity articulated buses, permits wheelchair users and everyone else to safely board from a protected and well-lit environment.
• Audio and text announcements now being installed in buses and stations assist all passengers and especially those who are blind, or who are deaf, or hard-of-hearing.
• High-tech proximity debit cards allow easy fare payment at ticket machines as passengers enter the stations, a feature that assists those with cognitive impairments, including tourists, visitors, and other first time users of the system.

 Recent reports of new BRT projects are encouraging and include: 

• Guadalajara, Mexico’s, Macrobús BRT system has scored well in public opinion polls of users of the recently opened accessible system. A second accessible BRT corridor, Eje 4, has opened in Mexico City.
• Lima, Peru’s BRT systems is now operating and BRT systems are operating or planned in most of Latin America’s largest cities.
• Ahmedabad, India, recently opened an accessible BRT system and plans are moving ahead in Bangalore and Pimpri-chinchwad. 
• Hanoi, Vietnam, is planning construction of seven kilometers of its first BRT corridor. 
• In South Africa, Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya system opened in August of 2009. Cape Town’s system is under construction. 
• In Tanzania, construction is scheduled to begin in September on Dar es Salaam’s “DART” BRT line and the system should begin operation in 2012.

 (This article reproduced (with some edits) with permission from Access Exchange International. Contributors of information for this section include the ITDP, CTS Mexico, and Gerhard Menckhoff and Dieter Schelling of the World Bank.)