It came to my attention this morning that NZ Bus have put in an order for 120 new buses from the UK. “Great!”, I thought, having recently traveled and experienced the wonders of automatic ramps (see video below). Given my well-documented loathing for Auckland bus drivers and their complete disregard for disabled passengers, the idea of automatic ramps (saving drivers the evidently gut-wrenching task of unfolding the ramp themselves) seems like a great idea.

But no. Once again, NZ Bus show blatant disregard for the diverse needs of their traveling public, and order 120 buses with the same old manual ramps. If you think I’m being too harsh, or find my tone unnecessarily disparaging, take a ride on a bus with a wheelchair user.

Or at least, try to. You’ll be lucky if the driver lets you on.

• An example of an awesome, wheelchair-accessible bus with an automatic ramp from my travels in Vancouver:

I’ve blogged once or twice before about the foibles of the so-called ‘accessible’ Auckland public transport system, which in reality is anything but.

So imagine my delight when I visited Vancouver as part of my Wheely Big OE, and found automated, truly wheelchair friendly buses and bus drivers! It might have helped that their former mayor was a wheelchair user himself, but nonetheless Vancouver currently stands as the most accessible city I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.

Click the ‘read more’ link to check out the video!