Lisa's transportation story

“We live two miles from the nearest bus stop and there are no sidewalks the entire way and that makes it even more difficult to travel independently.”

Lisa is legally blind. She lives in Tacoma, Washington and gets around by bus. Her biggest barrier is that she has to walk two miles from her house along a road without any sidewalks to catch a bus to go to doctor's appointments, grocery shopping or anywhere. That makes it hard to travel independently. Another barrier is how long it takes to get things done during the day — it makes it difficult for her to do things without asking someone to take her. She hopes that someday bus stops go in on the main street, 176th Street, close to her house. That would make things much easier because that would be a 5-to-10-minute walk at the most for her and her family. Lisa would like people who can drive to understand that public transit is her family’s vehicle. When it is not accessible, they are stranded. It is imperative to have accessible transit everywhere.

“When I had to go to Childrens’ Hospital with my son, we left at 6 a.m. and didn’t get home until 6 p.m. It took up our whole day going to a doctor appointment…It's kind of like a part time job, being on the buses all day.”

This story was originally published to Disability Rights Washington's Transportation Access Story Map. For more stories, please visit: https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/storymap/