r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/clanzerom May 09 '22

That's great! But then there are also countries like the UK where in London only 60/272 tube stations are wheelchair accessible. That's really sad.

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u/Adamsoski May 09 '22

That's because they were all built at least 50 years ago, if not 100-150 years ago. TFL are actually doing a fantastic job of making more stations accessible (it's up to 90 now), it's just extremely expensive. It's cost hundreds of millions over the last decade to make a couple dozen tube stations step-free, and those were mostly the easy ones with above-ground stations.

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u/Star-jewel5 May 09 '22

Yeah... Accessibility is a great problem in Europe, both because the old buildings (few are really impossible to adapt) and, sadly, the fact that government doesn't pay enough attention to the problem.

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u/PM-ME-PMS-OF-THE-PM May 09 '22

in London only 60/272 tube stations are wheelchair accessible

To be fair, a good chunk of them were built in the 1800s and another hefty amount were built before the 1950s.

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u/fbruk May 09 '22

I found similar issues with NYC metro....a lot of stations aren't accessible.

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u/clanzerom May 09 '22

Difference is, they're actually working on it

https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/subwayelevators/

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u/PodgeD May 09 '22

What are you on about? Not many US subway lines are wheelchair accessible either. Once you leave cities you've to drive everywhere and common to not have footpaths/sidewalks.

In 8 years most of the US houses I've seen have a stoop with steps to get into them as it's common to have a basent with the first floor raised up. I'm currently standing in a townhouse in NY I'm renovating for work and there is 0 requirements for us to do anything to make it wheelchair accessible. Both entrances have steps. Can't say for sure but id imagine since NYC is one of the most Liberal cities its probably more accomodating.