DPAC Sheffield is taking part in a campaign calling for Better Buses For South Yorkshire.
The campaign brings together people and groups who want to see bus services improved for the benefit of passengers and communities. They also want a return to public control of buses in the area, with a link to a petition on the subject.
DPAC Sheffield, the local branch of national organisation Disabled People Against Cuts has previously played an active part in the Freedom Riders campaign that successfully restored free transport across the local train network to disabled people with passes.
They say: “Our experience as disabled people has exposed the unacceptable deficiencies in the present model of bus service provision and we are going to give an honest assessment of these deficiencies.”
“Disabled people rely heavily on bus services to access community services and facilities: education, healthcare, visiting family and friends, employment, council services, leisure, shopping for food and clothes, and many other activities and services vital to an independent life. Many disabled people do not own a car for various reasons, such as the prohibitive costs of owning and running a car, having a condition that means we are unable to drive or have had Motability vehicles confiscated by a cruel and punitive disability payments regime. Yet our needs and basic human rights as disabled people using buses in South Yorkshire are most often treated as an afterthought by an apparatus working for bus companies seeking to make a profit from our patronage.”
DPAC Sheffield have made a video to accompany their part in this latest campaign.
