Narendre, Thanks for bringing this up. In Mumbai, the situation is more or less similar. I use to commute to and from work by rickshaw. However, my observation is that the rickshaw guys are generally becoming difficult at times, not just targetting us as visually challenged. In fact, because of not being able to get a rickshaw on my way back from office which in fact happens to be at around 4 in the evening (non peak hours), I switched to B E S T travel.
There, we cannot be denied envrey neither do we have to worry about finding a seat and seldom to worry about where to get off once familiar with the stops on the way, not to mention the feasibility of commute by bus. Sometimes, the idea is to make the commute convenient and spending on rickshaw may be necessary but when the guys act nasty, taking the next best option might just be the right thing to do. Bang opposite my bank, there is a rickshaw stand and not too further off is a bus stop. Usually a known rickshaw man would drive two others and me right to my doorstep However, after a few days, he would allow me to sit in the rickshaw but I had to wait for two or three other commuters to come so he could claim a share from each person. I began to realise that the wait was getting too much. Instead of reaching home in 10 to 15 minutes, which would have ideallly been the reason for taking a rick, I reached home in half an hour. Apparently, all other rickshaw drivers refused saying that the only man who would agree to drop off at my area of residence was the guy who ran the share rickshaw. The next evening, after waiting around for ten or so minutes and being refused by other auto guys, I headed to the busstop. As I was stepping into the bus, the rickshaw guy called out saying that the others had come and that there was a seat for me. But, I had made up my mind. This, however, has temporarily taken care of my situation, but as you say, there are times, when I would wish to choose commute by auto when I am carrying shopping bags and stuff. Also, during monsoon days, when a rickshaw drop home is obviously preferable. The problem here seems to be about them choosing to drive customers to their preferred destination rather than have us dropped where we wish to go. This is the case even in case of sighted customers. But, since commute poses more challenges for us, let's certainly hope to sensitise them. Regards, Payal Jethra Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
