Researches On Problems Of Barrier-free Facilities Supply In Guangzhou Bus Stations

A basic public service is a service which is provided by government to people livingwithin its jurisdiction. The term, which is based on a certain amount of social consensus, isassociated with the stage of national economic and social growth. It helps to maintain thecountry’s economic and social stability, basic social justice and cohesion and makes sure allthe social members have equal rights to live and develop.Barrier-free facilities are the essential conditions which guarantee all the social membersincluding the disables and the elderly to participate in social daily life and enjoy the materialand cultural achievements of the society equally. The supply of barrier-free facilities belongsto the category of basic public services provided by the government. The degree ofbarrier-free facilities is a vital standard of how the government has performed its duty onbasic public services, meanwhile, to evaluate the city’s environment and its spiritualconnotation. What’ more, the degree is an important symbol of the degree of civilization of acity.In the recent years, Guangzhou government has made great progress on setting upbarrier-free facilities of which the international community has seen the latest achievementswhen the city succeeded in hosting the10th Asian Para Games in2010and the achievementshave been widely praised. However, behind all the compliments there exist many problemswhich need to be further improved.Well-equipped barrier-free passageways and facilities are the foundation of a smooth andindependent travel experience for the disabled people. In fact，the supply of them in thepublic bus stops can be viewed as an epitome from which we can see the city as a whole.This study is based on comparison between Guangzhou and Macau, observing howdifferent the supply and people’s usage of the barrier-free facilities in the public bus stops are.Intuitively, in Macau there are disabled people using barrier-free transportation facilities totravel from time to time. However, the same situation can be barely seen in Guangzhou.Based on the above stated experience, the author chose Guangzhou South Railway Stationand Macau Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal as two cases to compare and analyze the supply andusage of their barrier-free facilities. Through the comparative study, the author found out that the barrier-free facilities in Guangzhou are not sufficient while some of them are not wellmanaged and others are even not applicable. The demands of the disables have hardly beenfulfilled and they have to bare the traffic difficulties in daily life and other social activities.Relatively, Macau performs better no matter in its quantity, quality or the monitoring andevaluation mechanism of the barrier-free system. Besides, the citizens in Macau are havinghigher consciousness of barrier-free facilities and the disables are feeling more satisfied thanthe counterparts in Guangzhou.With the reference of advanced experience from other countries, the author madesuggestions of improving barrier-free facilities supply in Guangzhou on the following aspects:1. The disabled people’s association should be established in order to express their demandsto the government.2. The legal system ought to be improved so as to protect the disables’legitimate rights and interests.3. A sound monitoring and evaluation mechanism needs to bebuilt to prompt the barrier-free facilities supply and improve its management.4. The publicare supposed to show more care and love to the disables by developing their consciousnessfor barrier-free environment, etc.