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Comment by GloucesterBoy | Hacker News Reader

There has recently been a big problem in London for the elderly - many bus stops have been removed and replaced with bicycle lanes, meaning the elderly have to move a considerable distance to their nearest bus stop.

There was also an issue that TfL was removing seats from bus stops to stop 'yobbery', but leaving the elderly without a place to sit while waiting: https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/elderly-forced-to-stand-...

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It's not just elderly people who need to sit down – I fractured my T11 vertebral body (amongst lots of other back-related woes) and find standing up for a prolonged period of time moderately excruciating.

That's true - and then there's pregnant women... and sometimes having a seat can make managing young children that little bit easier!

A lot of the new hostile architecture does a great job at making ordinary people suffer.

As this always comes up, disability is not an on/off, it's a spectrum. And we all will disabled in one way or another sooner or later.

Even if you're young and healthy, but you pulled a muscle helping a friend move their couch, you will likely want to sit down on a bus.

London has Dial-a-ride for people with impairments which provides a door-to-door journey https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/dial-a-ride/

But of course, a lot of people don't qualify, and others don't want to use a different service to others.

It's also a problem of people not wanting to be "in the way". Even if services are available on-demand, some older folks get the opinion that they don't want to explicitly request help as they'll add additional work for others, which they don't want to do. If the service is available anyways, they don't feel bad using it.

I've met some elderly people who weren't happy they received free senior passes for travel and wanted to pay like everyone else

My maternal grandparents are in their mid 90s, and they're both generally upset whenever it turns out they can't do something which was not a problem in their 80s - by that I mean e.g. cooking for ten people and organizing a family get-together.

What happened when they contacted the council to offer to pay? Or returned their travel pass?

TIL, thank you! Might be very useful for some of my family

There’s Taxicard too https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/taxicard/apply-ta...

Wait, since when are TFL removing stops for Cycle lanes? Wouldn't they need to re-engineer the whole road as that would mean moving the pavement as well?

They are indeed reengineering. Have a look at Westminster Bridge Road south end at the entrance to St Thomas's Hospital. It's on Google Street view.

The bus stop shelter has those awful "leaning seats" where you can't really sit down.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5007804,-0.119582,3a,84.9y,1...

It still has a bus stop though, the cycle path goes around it...

https://goo.gl/maps/t3kXprqhmxVqWKrd8

Those island bus stops must count as some of the worst design I've ever seen. Stupid beyond words

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