For decades, parents with prams and wheelchair users have been criticizing the steps of the railway underpass at both the Freileiten and Pfarrerfeld exits and are demanding a barrier-free solution. The Greens are taking the planned construction of the kindergarten on Pfarrerfeld as an opportunity to once again demand a barrier-free solution. On her initiative, the municipal council decided in its last meeting to examine and improve the network of paths to the kindergarten.
“For easy access to the kindergarten, the retirement home, the assisted living facility and the many homes and apartments in the Freileiten and Pfarrerfeld districts, a lift is needed in the underpass,” says Mobility Councilor Sonja Pickhardt-Kröpfel, explaining the initiative. Even if the lift solution, which was decided in 2009 and then never implemented due to the resistance of the ÖVP, has weak points, the Greens believe it should finally be implemented.
Cyclists and people with prams can only negotiate the railway underpass at the Freileiten and Pfarrerfeld exits with great effort. People in wheelchairs coming from the train station or Dörflberg end up in a dead end. For them, but also for some pram and buggy models, the rails on the stairs are an insurmountable barrier. A barrier-free exit has therefore been required for decades. As things currently stand, a lift is the best solution. Although it does not bring a 100% solution, because the other exits remain too steep for wheelchair users (unaccompanied or electric motor), it would significantly improve the situation for all current users and make the underpass passable for other passers-by. A ramp could only be “curved”, would be more than 80 meters long and would also be significantly more expensive to set up than a lift.
Stairs like in the overhead cableway underpass, high curbs, narrow sidewalks, steep ramps, narrow doors are obstacles that anyone can encounter. “It depends on the life situation whether a barrier is perceived as such. With prams, walking aids, wheelchairs or with increasing age, illness or disability, barriers become noticeable and discriminatory,” explains Pickhardt-Kröpfel. According to studies, 25 percent of the population is permanently or temporarily restricted in their mobility. “People are not disabled, they are being disabled.”
Source: Nachrichten
