This might not be a big deal, but it irks me because it shows how little consideration for the needs of people in wheelchairs like me goes into planning in Gainesville where I live. I don't know if it's temporary or permanent and if it's caused by the expansion of the Butler Plaza shopping area, but the bus drivers of the bus route 1, that I usually take to buy groceries on Sunday are now told not to wait on passengers by what used to be the last stop on the run, but to go round the corner and kill time there instead. On both ends, drivers usually sit there for a few minutes before they head back out again. You may ask: what's the difference, it's only a short walk away? The old stop had a shelter. The other is a rod in the middle of grass, and what's more important to me- it doesn't have a sidewalk. I've seen people running for the buss across the grassy area just to make it. I can't do it. I can't roll off a sidewalk and go through grass, even if the driver can wait that long. They do wait for 5,10 often a few minutes especially on their last run. So, it does feel at times like the bus is mocking me. It's there, so close, but I just can't get to it. And I guess it's not a big deal. Most of the time I have 30 minutes to wait for the next one - and it will stop for me if i get to the usual shelter five minutes earlier, because it does go through there. But it doesn't leave you with a good feeling to know that there's yet another place you can't get to. That people can run for it, but you have to wait. And I'm sure there's a lot good reasons for it: safety, narrow roads, traffic. But what I want to know is how come we still have bus stops without sidewalk access, in the middle of a road or grass.
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