Colombia: comprehensive Bogota bus company will be made completely accessible by the year 2004
By Luis Fernando Astorga Gatjens (lferag@racsa.co.cr), source: Disnnet
Daniel Bermúdez, a person with a physical disability and user of public transportation, was recently victorious in court. Thanks to his struggle the Constitutional Court of Colombia ordered the Bogotá bus company, Transmilenio, to provide effective accessibility for persons with reduced mobility.
The Transmilenio offers massive passenger transportation using articulated buses in cities like Curitiba, Brasil, where it originated, and in Bogotá, where it operates like a metro system.
Daniel, who is a wheelchair user, had received a negative response from a local district Court last year, where he had to sue the company because it did not provide accessibility accommodations along all its routes. When his demands were not met, Daniel then took his case to a higher tribunal, the Constitutional Court of Colombia.
At the Constitutional Court, Daniel demonstrated there were on-going violations to the rights of liberty or "freedom of motion" against persons with disabilities. The buses used by Transmilenio do not offer accessibility accommodations for people with physical disabilities to be able to effectively use a public service which is provided for the rest of the population. He took the case to court because he has to make daily15 minute trips from his home to the nearest accessible Transmilenio terminal; even though the bus he needs stops near his home, it is not accessible.
The Constitutional Court has mandated that Transmilenio must make all its buses accessible for persons using wheelchairs within the next two years. The company management also must file a progress report to the Colombian Association of Persons with Disabilities (Asociación Colombiana para el Desarrollo de las Personas Discapacitadas, ASCOPAR).
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