The argument there seems to be going in circles.
One side will constantly cite other countries and bash S'pore as
being rigid and stiff.
The other side remains rigid and stiff, choosing to draw support
from rules. Eg rules are rules.
Anybody who's uninitiated will just get more confused reading
it.
But to me it seems to be that the bus companies are in
the process of converting their fleet, so really, you can't expect
much during this period of time. LTA is moving slowly in that
direction because there are grey areas.
Given buses may not stick to their routes (cameos), imagine. A
wheelchair person sees the bus (wheelchair logo and all) and
concludes that the service is wheelchair friendly. Wouldn't that be
a problem? What if the bus is just a "cameo"? A bus that's a
stand-in only in other words? It is nearly impossible to ensure
that a wheelchair one replaces a wheelchair one, or a
non-wheelchair one replaces a non-wheelchair one at this stage
where the new ones are only starting to arrive. Thus said, to make
matters more complicated, the drivers have to be trained for the
new type because not just the ramp, but this new one is
signifcantly different from the other types.
Problems like these will take time to iron out as they are
phasing out the older buses and replacing them with the new
ones.
I think the last post on page 4 probably sums up what went wrong
best. The restrictions on wheelchair buses were not as
well-publicised, and uninitiated ordinary users (whom the fanatics
forget also share the public transport service) assume
that as long as it's on the route it should accept wheelchairs, as
I witnessed.
The mere absence of the label isn't enough and there should be a
'Route is not wheelchair-ready' decal or something similar.
