So this one is a problem I don’t really know how to solve, and I hold my hands up for this one, that I am also part of the problem. Bins on the street, during bin day, alter the path and mean that someone who is unable to move the bin has to find an alternative route. This is what happened to me while walking the dogs this morning. Now as I have two dogs, I was walking them with my sister, but if I was doing so alone, this would have been an extremely complicated situation, that I don’t think I could deal with.
Now I know that bins have to be put out on the street, in order to collected. And that’s why this one isn’t such an easy problem to solve. I’m aware the whole bin collection service isn’t going to put peoples bins back into there gardens, or pick them up if they are not on the street. But these bins coupled with rubbish that often liters the street, overgrown bushes and tree routes, and the cars that shouldn’t be parked on the pavement. Make everything very inaccessible to me.
I understand that bins on the street can be annoying to everyone, but just because a problem is a problem to everyone, does not mean it is the same problem to everyone.
Something needs to be done, I don’t know what that is, but something.
The world is inaccessible enough, having to remember when bin day is, is just something extra I don’t need. It just isn’t fair that I have to make these kinds of choices when I go out. Simply because people do not want to make things a little bit harder for themselves. You will also see, if you watch the video that there was glass on the ground, and food is on the ground. These are things that are dangerous to both able bodied and disabled people as well as pets. Another obstruction that is not often considered that often effects pavements, is the way tree roots and other plants grow and become an obstruction. Again this is often a problem for most people, but it is more of a problem for those with mobility difficulties.
If you have mobility difficulties, getting off the pavement when there is an obstruction on it, is not always simple. Particularly if you are in a wheelchair. I also have to consider how I’m going to get both off then on the pavement, by this I mean where the drop down curb is and whether it is being obstructed by a car. This is sometimes the case.
There is something wrong with the way we treat the pavements, the lack of care we pay to them, and this results in dangerous situation.
Please remember that your actions have consequences that are sometimes a lot bigger than you might realise. I know that bin day does not have an easy solution, but please do your best, if you can to get your bins in as soon as possible after they have been emptied. And please do not park on pavements, while this is not illegal in itself, obstructing pavements is a fineable offence, within the UK. Parking on the drop down curbs on the pavements is illegal.
If you see an obstruction on the pavement and you can safely move it, you should, you never know if you’d be making someone’s life a lot easy.
Please watch the Tiktok video to better understand the situation that I faced this morning.
My Inaccessible Life 