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I've been seeing discourse again about the real/supposed ableism of transit and walkability advocacy, and I am once again frustrated by the incredible car-centricity of it.
I am disabled in ways that can limit access to walking-oriented spaces, but I've also never been a driver. When people talk about the difficulties of managing an invisible disability on public transit, I nod my head hard -- but so often this turns into a subtext/text of "we still need to privilege cars."
That... loses me.
I'm not even a ban-cars type; I accept that they are going to be the best solution in a small minority of use cases. But when I hear someone arguing -- or seeming to argue -- that making car use *possible but inconvenient* is ableist, honestly what I hear is good old American car dependence filtered through an intersectional lens.
When I see videos of disabled folks in motor wheelchairs / scooters / etc rocketing down bike paths in Europe, that looks like freedom to me.
I don't use those kinds of mobility aids because, in the American social & built environment, there's not really any such thing as only using one when you need to. So on my bad days, I stay home or get driven everywhere; both of which I hate.
But that is changeable. And it is frankly MOST changeable if we stop obsessing over cars.