DPAC Sheffield is taking an active part in this collective demand from the people of South Yorkshire for Better Buses for South Yorkshire.
DPAC Sheffield has a strong record of holding public transport providers to account, most notably through our active part in The South Yorkshire Freedom Ride campaign where we contributed significantly to the campaign that successfully restored free transport across the local train network to disabled people with passes.
Our experience as disabled people has exposed the unacceptable deficiencies in the present model of bus service provision and we are going to give an honest assessment of these deficiencies.
Section C of ‘Article 19 of The United Nations Convention of Rights for Persons with Disabilities. Living independently and being included in the community’ states:
“c) Community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with disabilities and are responsive to their needs.”
Disabled people rely heavily on bus services to access community services and facilities: education, healthcare, visiting family and friends, employment, council services, leisure, shopping for food and clothes, and many other activities and services vital to an independent life. Many disabled people do not own a car for various reasons, such as the prohibitive costs of owning and running a car, having a condition that means we are unable to drive or have had Motability vehicles confiscated by a cruel and punitive disability payments regime. Yet our needs and basic human rights as disabled people using buses in South Yorkshire are most often treated as an afterthought by an apparatus working for bus companies seeking to make a profit from our patronage.
Some of the major issues that disabled people face when trying to access bus services in South Yorkshire are as follows:
Poor frequency of services or even a total lack of any bus service. Bus timetables seem to be formulated for the convenience of bus companies rather than passengers. This has an especially negative effect on disabled people for whom alternatives such as cycling, walking or driving are impossible. In this situation many disabled people become reliant on car rides from family and friends, having to work around other people’s lives and needs. Alternatively, disabled people become reliant on expensive taxi services. This not only adds to already high volumes of car traffic but also depletes disabled people’s already inadequate means, leading to our cutting back on essentials such as food or heating. Hence, disabled people living on underserved or non-existent routes are unable to access services and facilities on an equal basis or live independent lives.
Accessibility. Buses are often very crowded at busy times of day when we need to access community services and facilities, including workplaces. This is often related to the poor bus frequency mentioned previously. Very often there is standing room only. Disabled people who use wheelchairs too often find there is no space for their wheelchairs due to lack of provision. This may be because the wheelchair space is being used by a parent with a pushchair or buggy. Passengers should not have to compete for space in this way. Travelling on a bus should not be a competition or a fight. The needs and rights of wheelchair users and parents with buggies are equal. On a related note, many people have ‘hidden’ disabilities which mean they need to sit down to travel. These conditions include (but not exhaustively so) M.E, where people may not necessarily use a wheelchair but suffer from extreme fatigue and cannot stand on a bus journey, pregnant people, conditions that effect balance and coordination and the needs of autistic people who may struggle to cope with travelling on public transport. The relationship between many bus drivers and passengers can exacerbate these situations as drivers do not appear educated in the needs of disabled people, especially those of us with hidden disabilities and are often unsympathetic or sometimes – but very rarely – aggressive towards us. Again, this lack of accessibility means that disabled people struggle to access services and facilities on an equal basis or live independent lives.
Lack of integrated public transport. This is an issue that effects all passengers but has a magnified effect on disabled people. Many routes across South Yorkshire or to neighbouring counties are underserved or not served by buses, meaning disabled people have to switch modes and often more than once, e.g., switching from bus to train to tram. Lack of coordinated timetables between competing service providers means that journey times become excessively long and tiring for disabled people, exacerbating health conditions. The concentration of many services within just a few locales, e.g., specialist healthcare necessary for the effective treatment and management of disabled people’s conditions, means inadequacies in bus services and lack of integrated public transport create another barrier to disabled people trying to access services and facilities on an equal basis or live independent lives.
Cost. Although many people have disabled people’s bus passes this not always the case. The cruel and punitive regime of benefits payments in the UK means that disabled people very often do not get the qualifying payments necessary to get a bus pass. This leaves us struggling or even totally unable to afford what many quite rightly consider exorbitant ticket prices across South Yorkshire from which bus companies profit. Bus passes can only be used at off-peak times of day. When disabled people need to access services outside those times we have to pay the full cost of a ticket, try to find a lift or try to access overstretched local council or NHS transport services. These costs mean we are unable to access services and facilities on an equal basis or live independent lives.
Environmental and health considerations. Emissions from buses are a major contributor towards air pollution and associated health conditions such as asthma, which disable people for life. Most buses still run on fossil fuels that contribute significantly to global climate breakdown. Pathetically poor, privately operated bus services have contributed to an environmentally catastrophic increase in car traffic over recent decades. The effects of global climate breakdown affect disabled people disproportionately for many reasons as extremes of heat, cold and damp have a negative impact on disabled people’s lives in myriad ways.
That is just a summary of the experience of disabled people using buses across South Yorkshire in usual circumstances. The effects of the COVID19 pandemic have changed matters considerably for the worse.
Hundreds of thousands of disabled people have been killed during the pandemic. Approximately two-thirds of the 160,000 people who have so far been killed had a disability. Despite the fact that COVID19 is an airborne pathogen, in the early days of the pandemic no mandates for social distancing or mask wearing by either drivers or passengers were introduced on buses. This meant that disabled people who were clinically vulnerable or clinically extremely vulnerable had to face the real and horrifying risk of contracting a potentially lethal virus on their routine bus journeys whilst facing all the barriers and inadequacies previously outlined, and contribute to bus company profits for the privilege. Although we do not know how many people have contracted COVID19 on public transport, estimates suggest that up to 69 bus drivers in the UK have died during the pandemic due to lack of protective measures and abhorrent working practices from bus companies. We know that a key part of introducing better buses for South Yorkshire is for bus workers to take charge of their working conditions and lives; DPAC Sheffield give our solidarity to their struggle.
Although the state and local councils very belatedly – and after tens of thousands of disabled people had been killed – introduced some shielding and self-isolation measures for us, these were woefully inadequate. Our care packages were cut to the bare and extremely inadequate minimum whilst many disabled people struggled, and still struggle to get food and essential supplies delivered to our homes. This left many disabled people in a position where we had to use buses to get to places such as supermarkets, chemists and food banks, albeit with bus companies having introduced mandates for mask wearing and social distancing by that time. During lockdown disabled people were left extremely isolated as the general reluctance to use public transport meant carers, friends and family also reduced their visits.
Despite the vaccine rollout proving to be partially effective at reducing COVID transmission, many disabled people are unable to have a vaccine due their specific conditions. Meanwhile, mandates for mask wearing and social distancing have now been dropped by the state with profiteering bus companies complying. The government has completely ended shielding support for disabled people. Disabled people now face having to share buses with passengers who are potentially unvaccinated, unmasked, not social distancing and who may often make disabled people feel uncomfortable for continuing to wear masks and even face shields on their journeys.
Additionally, the state’s consciously cruel cut to Universal Credit means that disabled people have seen our already totally inadequate incomes slashed by £20 a week, whilst private bus companies continue to receive massive subsidies. This means that using taxis or running a car becomes impossible; using public transport with no mandatory mitigations against COVID transmission is our only alternative. Disabled people on so-called ‘legacy benefits’ never received any increase in our payments and now not only face the choice between ‘heating or eating’ but the prospect of living or dying; approximately 1000 people a week are dying from COVID with the numbers of dead forecast to increase greatly over the winter. Furthermore, Long COVID is now disabling thousands of people in the region. These people will be faced with the barriers and inadequacies faced by disabled bus passengers in South Yorkshire for many months or years to come, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
The human rights of disabled people in South Yorkshire have been breached and ignored egregiously by multiple agencies across the country and the region, including transport bodies and bus companies.
Nothing has to be this way.
DPAC Sheffield demand that bus transportation be taken into a system of public operation run entirely by and for transport workers and passengers free from the quest for profit and shareholder demands. We demand disabled people are given all decision making powers over the needs and rights of disabled people using buses within South Yorkshire. We demand that South Yorkshire becomes a global leader and innovator in bus provision for disabled people so that we are provided with a superlative service to be emulated by other parts of the country and the world. Nothing about us without us.
Thank you for the little film. The presentation was very effective and certainly will help me in talking within DPAC and in in Public transport greoups in the North East.
However i have one question.
What have you “done” to further your aims ?
I hope you help us ensure are actions are effective