My travel experiences on Public Transport

Tracy

By Tracy Hunt

Over the past few years, many major improvements have been made towards making both Public Transport, and Public Places more accessible, for people with physical impairments, and wheelchair users.

As a wheelchair user myself, I am frequently using more than one form of Public Transport to reach destinations, which in the past, I would never have thought possible, independently.

To travel now, compared to a few years ago, you will find most Busses, Trains, and in most County’s Taxis, are becoming more accessible for wheelchairs. And staff working in the travel industry are conscious of disabled passengers. Some travel companies are using special training facilities in the constant drive to make our environment more accessible.

I would like to share my personal experiences of planning and organising trips, to inspire others to travel more widely. As it can be done, if time is spent doing a bit of research, and making arrangements covering as much detail as possible. The more information you can gather concerning accessible hotels, transport and environment, the more confident you will be when embarking on a trip to somewhere new. I gather as much information as possible about my proposed venture from Google image search. You would be surprised at the amount of useful information you can obtain from studying pictures, or in some cases 360 degree video tours. From pictures or moving images of towns and places you can see such things as drop kerbs, level access to buildings and sometimes the interiors.

As I live in London many day trips to places of interest are on offer. I will tell you about those too.

Birmingham

My first challenging trip I undertook independently, with my school age daughter, was a four day trip to Birmingham in 2005. I first researched a suitable hotel. One of my main problems during a stay at a hotel, apart from general access, is inaccessible bathrooms with no grab rails. After some investigation I chose a Holiday Inn, owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group. To gain a clearer picture of the bathroom facilities I spoke to a member of the hotel staff to ask specific questions regarding, width of bathroom the door, and number of grab rails.

Watch a presentation about my Experiences of Birmingham - left click and "open to watch the slideshow". Once the document is open click the slide show icon.

Wrexham

In July this year me and my daughter spent four days in Wrexham in North Wales. The most accessible and wheelchair friendly hotel was The Ramada Plaza. Our wheelchair access room was large, and the facilities in the hotel bathroom consisted of a shower seat and eight grab rails, four around the toilet and four around shower area. The most grab rails I have ever seen in one bathroom.

Watch a presentation about my Experiences of Wrexham - left click and "open to watch the slideshow". Once the document is open click the slide show icon.

Day trips in London

Central London is a good destination to visit. Wheelchair access is improving all the time, on public transport and places of interest. There is still a long way to go, as many of the buildings in London were first built centuries ago, and alterations are difficult. However, there is still plenty to see and do.

Watch a presentation about my Experiences of London - left click and "open to watch the slideshow". Once the document is open click the slide show icon.