Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener, drawing attention to the difficulties faced by people with disabilities in traffic, said, “A traffic environment where wheelchair users can move without assistance has not yet been created.”
Şener, pointing out the inadequacy of traffic safety for individuals with disabilities in Turkey, emphasized the necessity of public awareness campaigns.
Özgür Şener, Lecturer at Üsküdar Üniversitesi's Department of Occupational Health and Safety, and Road and Traffic Safety Consultant, evaluated the issue of disability ramps and awareness.
Who are the disadvantaged group in traffic?
Özgür Şener stated that countries prioritizing traffic safety refer to pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheeled motorcyclists, and wheelchair users—those most affected by collisions in traffic—as "Vulnerable Road Users." He added, “When making traffic designs, they create them in a way that maximizes the separation of motorized/electric vehicles, which have a body and thus protection, from vulnerable road users. The principle is that these users, whom we can call the disadvantaged group in traffic, should be able to travel from point A to point B continuously, protected, and safely.”
There is no traffic environment where an individual using a wheelchair can travel unassisted
Özgür Şener also stated that they regulate traffic to suit elderly individuals and those in wheelchairs, who have the highest level of mobility restrictions among vulnerable road users, and continued:
“For example, they determine the safe crossing time at a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights based on the time it would take the oldest individual in traffic to cross safely. In recent years, we have also seen that the mobility restrictions of our disabled individuals are taken into account in traffic regulations made in our country. However, unfortunately, we do not have a traffic environment where an individual moving with a wheelchair can go anywhere they want without the help of another person.”
Public information and awareness efforts, campaigns are needed!
Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener concluded his words by stating that when the insensitive behavior of vehicle drivers is added to this already insufficient infrastructure, it becomes impossible for people with disabilities to integrate into social life and participate in traffic freely and safely:
“Vehicles parked on sidewalks and wheelchair ramps prevent individuals using wheelchairs from moving, even with the support of an assistant. To overcome this obstacle, they are forced to use unsafe vehicle lanes, exposing them to vehicle collisions. Public information and awareness efforts and campaigns are needed on this issue. The efforts of the Türkiye Omurilik Felçlileri Derneği (Turkish Paraplegics Association) to make its voice heard on this matter with its limited resources should be supported by the state through public service announcements.”