Removal of Bus Benches Is Proposed : Oxnard: The city is drafting a new policy for the disabled. Narrow sidewalks hinder people in wheelchairs.

Oxnard transportation officials say they will recommend the removal of bus benches from narrow sidewalks throughout the city to ensure equal access to people in wheelchairs.

Sparked in part by a new federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against the disabled, city staff members are drafting a plan that would require removal of benches that make it difficult or impossible for wheelchairs to pass.

City staff members initially estimated that about half of Oxnard’s approximately 150 bus benches would have to be removed, according to South Coast Area Transit officials.

But transportation planners now say they will propose striking down the city’s current bus bench law, and establishing a new procedure regulating placement of the seats.

Although the federal Americans with Disabilities Act does not require removal of the benches, city officials said the federal law prompted their revision of the ordinance.

The new guidelines, expected to be available for City Council review in about three months, would allow benches only on sidewalks wide enough to also accommodate wheelchairs, said Oxnard transportation planner Rita Johnson.

“It’s difficult to remove benches and not have them available for people,” Johnson said. “But we are trying to make facilities accessible to people with disabilities.”

Oxnard is the only Ventura County city wrestling with the issue. Officials in the county’s nine other cities said they have fewer bus benches and wider sidewalks.

But in the county’s largest city, advocates for the disabled say they have been forced to maneuver through an obstacle course of bus benches, news racks and other barriers dotting city sidewalks. Some of Oxnard’s sidewalks are less than 5 feet wide.

Those obstacles often force some disabled residents to push their wheelchairs onto the street and into traffic, advocates said.

“It’s not always that safe or sane,” said Linda Galbraith, confined to a wheelchair since 1982 after losing a leg in an auto accident. “I’ve asked the city for years to do something about it. Now they are going to. Maybe.”

Galbraith said Oxnard has given little consideration to the problems facing the handicapped, and that people with disabilities are a long way from having equal access to public facilities.

“It’s really nice that they want to put benches there,” she said. “But if I can’t use the sidewalks my taxes are paying for, or if I have to ride in the street just so somebody can sit down, I’m going to say don’t put the benches there.”

Oxnard’s current bus bench law puts no limit on the number of seats that companies can place near bus stops. Instead, three Los Angeles-area companies licensed by the city may set out as many benches as they can sell advertising for.

Under the new ordinance, the city would offer an exclusive contract to one bus bench company and limit to two the number of benches per bus stop.

In addition, the city would outlaw the placement of bus benches on the thin strips of sidewalk that run through many areas of Oxnard.

Along C Street near the city’s downtown, bus benches block sidewalks and make it impossible for wheelchairs to get by. And at the Esplanade Mall, on a narrow strip of concrete that doubles as a bus stop, benches also block the path of people in wheelchairs.

At that bus stop Wednesday, word of the city’s desire to remove sidewalk-blocking bus benches was met with opposition.

“There are a lot of elderly people who use these benches,” said 73-year-old Mordichai Rosenwirth of Westlake Village. “What benefit would it be for them to take away the benches?”