A wheelchair user tried getting on the electric low-floor bus with the ramp and the bus tilted down. With great might, he got on the first ramp, but the incline was too great for the next ramp, and he came rolling back to the bus stop.
Crutch users too found it difficult to use the ramp. The fault is not of the bus, but the bus stop. With no standard design, bus stop platforms vary in height, making it difficult to board low-floor buses, which are the most accessible for persons with disabilities.
In an effort to standardise the design of future bus stops, the Disability Rights Alliance (DRA) started the ‘Bus4all’ initiative. Under this, nearly 10 ambulant persons with reduced mobility carried out accessibility audits at two bus stops on Kamarajar Salai on Sunday to formulate recommendations for an accessible bus stop.
“Five years ago, there were no low-floor buses. Now that we have electric low-floor buses, we also need accessible bus stops. This effort is to come up with the best accessible bus stops,” said Satish Kumar, member of the DRA.
At the model bus stop near Vivekananda House, the height of the bus stop was 300 mm. However, Gnana Bharathi, founder of Spinal Injured Persons Association, said that after alighting from the bus, he had to encounter immediate traffic as there was no access to the nearby footpath.
“The road and the footpath should be at the same level so that a person can climb easily. The footpath and the bus stop platform also need to be aligned,” he said.
The platform height continues to be a hindrance for persons with disabilities as, at some places, it is 300 mm, and 150 mm at others.
DRA member Meenakshi Balasubramaniam added that the tactile tiles for the visually impaired did not have much space between them, leaving her with little space to use her crutches.
“Inside the bus itself, there is no place to hold our assistive devices, or we would have to leave them far from where we are seated, which is a problem. With little leg room, there is no support for us to sit and not enough room for some of us to bend our legs,” she added.
Mr. Bharathi also said many bus drivers did not stop the buses close to the bus stop. “They stop far away, defeating the purpose of low-floor buses. A curved path indicator would help drivers to stop at the bus stop and close enough for persons with disabilities to board easily,” he added.
Pavithra Sriram, architect and co-founder of Design Co:Lab, added that the exercise helped understand how each user could access public infrastructure. “We are finding a way where everyone can walk in every space. This should ideally come from the city, and not advocacy groups. There are enough data, guidelines, and harmonised design guidelines, but implementation continues to lag,” she said.
The DRA will submit their recommendations for accessible bus stops to the Greater Chennai Corporation and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.
Published - July 27, 2026 12:03 am IST