The Coalition have been back campaigning at Number 10!
Ben, one of our Treloar’s students joined us in supporting the National Federation of the Blind UK to hand in our petition to Downing street. Here’s what he had to say:
“On Tuesday 20th of February, I went to London to deliver a petition against Floating bus stops with Nikki from Surrey Coalition. It was a great opportunity to visit Downing Street and take part in this project which is so important to our community. I hope that our Prime Minister will take into consideration the hundreds of people that will benefit from the change in policy”
More information about the campaign, below:
What are floating bus stops?
It’s a bus stop which has a carriageway or a cycle track running behind it so that people board or alight a bus from what is essentially either a large traffic island or perhaps something which looks like central reserve.
Why are we campaigning against them?
Blind, visually impaired, disabled, older and vulnerable bus passengers should be able to get on and off the bus independently directly from the pavement as they have always done.
The majority of cyclists, which now also includes many other forms of e-micro-mobility both legal and illegal, do not stop and they cannot be heard against the background noise of the road environment. The bus islands and designs are also inaccessible for blind and visually impaired people to navigate safely and independently, leading to people becoming disorientated, confused and isolated.
What we’re asking the government to do:
Halt all funding for any schemes using floating or shared use bus boarder in the UK and immediately act on the NFBUKs petition, now backed by over 250 supporting organisations which calls for:
• Direct access to and from the pavement to board and alight from the bus is protected for all bus passengers.
• No more floating bus stop or Copenhagen style bus stop/cycle track at bus border to be constructed in the UK.
• For all active travel schemes/street redesigns in planning process to be redesigned to ensure direct access from the pavement to the bus is protected.
• References to using floating bus stops (bus stop bypasses) and Copenhagen style bus stops/cycle track at bus borders be removed from all Guidance produced by the Department for Transport and by devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• For all temporary floating bus stops and Copenhagen style bus stops/cycle track at bus borders added during COVID to be immediately removed to ensure direct access to and from the pavement for all bus passengers is restored.
• For all bus stops that have been changed to accommodate cycle lanes to be changed back to ensure direct access to and from the bus stop for all bus passengers.
