Interesting, finally one transits oddity that tops Montreal. Did your city
buy its buses from Nova also???
Maria
----- Original Message -----
From: "m99m" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 7:41 PM
Subject: Sic Transit Wheeli Oxoniensis
> .
> On the accessible public transit front, I guess the learned researchers on
> this list take abuse any time, but seldom a bus. Last year I did take a
bus
> in Oxford - which prides itself on having everything exceptionally well
> thought out -- you can't cross a road without knocking at least one PhD
off
> her bike -- and noticed the instructions on the bus for wheelchair users,
> which stated:
>
> 1. You are a complete idiot.
>
> 2. You must turn your wheelchair into this confined space, arrest it
facing
> backward in the closest proximity to the restraining board, wind the
> officially supplied piece of rope thrice around your neck, and remain in
> this position for the duration of your itinerary.
>
> 3. You must be Accompanied by a Person Capable, in the event of a Fire, of
> picking you and your chair up and clearing you out of the way of proper
> people.
>
> 4. Only one wheelchair shall be carried at a time, and that only on
Tuesday
> afternoons in months ending in 'y'.
>
> 5. Do not chew tobacco or spit while the Omnibus is in motion.
>
> I quote the above from memory (and have, of course, translated from the
> Latin), so the phraseology might not be exact -- but one perceives
> adequately the broad reluctance of the ominous omnibus company to comply
> with their recent obligation to provide some sort of space into which an
> intrepid and preferably hypothetical wheelchair user (articulated, if
> possible) might be crammed, and their keen anticipation that if the driver
> were ever to apply the brakes instead of simply ploughing straight through
> the shoals of PhD-laden cyclists, any bus-using wheeli-rider's head would
> immediately get detached from their shoulders and would bounce around the
> bus to the inconvenience of the little old ladies trying to read and
> critically review Wittgenstein on the way home from the shops. Caput.
>
> I hope this may enlighten some American transit researchers who might be
> thinking of visiting the Home of Lost Causes (also lost gloves, library
> books and bicycle chains - the latter may be retrievable from the Porter's
> Lodge every second Wednesday during the Lachrymosal term, except in Leap
> Years, when application should be made to the Proctor's office).
>
> m99m
>
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