Mexico City is lax in accessibility

By Alfredo Santana

Leonardo Andrade lives with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) in Mexico City, rides a foldable manual wheelchair pushed by her mother, and knows first hand how unfriendly is that city to people with disabilities.

Andrade attended the First International Conference on OI Jan. 19 and 20, at the National Institute of Pediatrics (INP), picked up some advice from a former international Mexican star who became disabled when he injured his back spine after practicing surfing and water boat acrobatics, and jotted down medical tips on how to improve certain aspects of his life doing exercises and therapy with lots of care.

OI is a genetic disability that creates weaker bones in the whole body. Many bones have the tendency to break, or snap with ease.Experts estimate that at least 5,000 adults and children live in Mexico with the condition.

But when asked about how he moves around the city, Andrade was straight and blunt.

“The transportation system is almost zero accessible, with few exceptions”, said Andrade, 35, who wears black rim glasses, and rides a iron-crafted welded red wheelchair made to fit his body. “Only a few stops of the metro rail system in the city allow us to board the trains. We have sidewalk ramps, but there is so many people, and there are so many stairs [in the stations] that, literally, there is no space for us in [train] public transportation.”

In several of the central city mega metro train stations, Tacubaya, Tacuba, Nativitas, Balderas, Auditorio Nacional, just to mention some, big display ads boast the efficiency, size and speed with which the underground and street-level system operates. The display ads compare it with other systems of several global cities, such as New York, London, Barcelona, Brussels, etc.

I live, and work in Los Angeles, and I found it amazing, and ironic, that my city’s metro rail system was nowhere to be found in the comparison windows. Although smaller in size and lines, Los Angeles’ metro rail system is fully accessible, and plans are in the works to expand at least two new lines that will transport Angelenos from downtown L.A. to the Santa Monica beach to the west, and from its downtown to Sylmar, its northernmost point in the San Fernando Valley.

Going back to Mexico City, it’s estimated by the government of current Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrad, that at least nine routes that operate from north to south of the city, and from east to west, transport at least eight to 10 million passengers every day to work, to school, or to visit historic sites, such as the albeit decadent colonial district in Paseo de la Reforma, located near the zocalo. The zocalo is where the federal presidential palace, the city hall and the national cathedral face each other. Many others use the rail system to visit parks, to go to entertainment venues, or just plainly to avoid driving cars.

If one is savvy enough, a three pesos ticket can get you almost all around Mexico City in one trip, without leaving the network of lines.

Sure, the metro rail system is huge. For a city where nearly 24 million people live, the electric trains help, in a big way, to control large amounts of pollutants emitted by hundreds of thousands of cars a day, big factories in and around the city, and by the residents themselves. Someone unfamiliar with the south of Mexico City, like I was last week, gets a nonchalant welcome signal when a persistent smell of open sewage pipelines streams into the nose.

The answer the city has offered for the disabled is called Metrobús, a series of accessible street level buses that transport people in wheelchair, the blind, and others with disabilities. But the reach and scope of those routes is limited to three large routes, two from south to north, and one from east to west.

The geographical area that covers is limited, compared to that of the metro train lines. Although these buses comply with “all the international norms of access, and provide a safe and reliable service,” according to the official Mexico City government website, the effort seems insufficient, being Mexico City one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. The portal says the government has begun construction of lines four and five. People with disabilities travel for free.

For Andrade, and perhaps for tenths of thousands of people with disabilities in the city, the global comparisons of the local metro rail system don’t help to improve the lack of vision leaders of the city have had for decades about issues of accessibility. Certainly, the government recognizes in its page at www.df.gob.mx., that it's way cheaper to built street accessible bus lines than to retrofit and redesign dozens of metro rail stations.

“Every time I go to work, I ride with my mother in her car. For the moment, there is almost no other way to get to work,” Andrade said. He works as customer attendant at a company engaged in tourism and restaurants business called Telemark, located far from any Metrobús stop.

In addition, many sidewalks, in and around the central historic district are uneven, are crumbling, or are plainly inaccessible. The same goes for many sidewalks around the magnificent Azteca Stadium, where the only way for someone in a wheelchair, or a scooter to enter, is getting in with a car. The Tlalpan neighborhood, nested close to the INP, suffers from the same lax infrastructure.

I pitched in some ideas about how to improve sidewalks, and some street crossings for people with disabilities. Maybe independent contractors, licensed with the city, can begin to work to level some of the unevenness of the streets sidewalks. Andrade and I concurred that city regulations that force home owners, businesses, apartment complex buildings, and others to have neat, accessible sidewalks paired with their neighbors’ may begin to work the tricks.

We also agreed that lots of work lie ahead for that to happen. And since city planning, and maintenance programs start, in many occasions, in the university classrooms, those who don’t live with a disability, or who lack the advise of someone with these experiences, but who are engaged in these businesses, become a byproduct of discriminatory urban inertia. They also show lack of commitment.

Andrade told me that there is only one female councilmember, from the left-of-center Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, who publicly fights for issues concerning disabilities in Mexico City. Not to say Mayor Marcelo Ebrad lacks the intelligence to address these issues. He created several years ago a program of academic scholarships for dozens of children and youth with disabilities. However, he has done little to make that megacity a better accessible place to live.

Andrade told me that small steps are being taken by community groups to address quality of life issues. They are making their voices heard, particularly in the medical and school areas. Currently, many elementary and secondary schools have study chairs and desks especially designed to serve people in wheelchairs, or with certain mobility issues. Some independent schools are beginning to build access wheelchair ramps. But much more is still to get built, like handrails for children with special needs that fit their height, accessible bathrooms, wide doors for wheelchairs, etc.

“It will be nice to have elevator shafts, ramps and special seats for us in all metro rail stations, and trains,” Andrade said. “We know that this city has to have the resources to build them. There is so much wealth accumulated in some parts of the city. But we have to see them”.