Where is the most logical, safe, and reasonable place for a person to drive a motorized wheelchair-the sidewalk or the road?
According to the Kinnewick Washington police, wheelchair users should stay OFF the sidewalk and use the road as long 
as the speed limit is 35mph or below. This might be a one of those stupid law stories if this rule hadn't already resulted in a close call for one woman with a disability.
Diana Law must have been taking her namesake to heart on Sunday night when she and her wheelchair were the victims of a hit and run. The driver of a white SUV never stopped to check on Law or her chair after the collision. Diana was lucky to emerge from the accident with no injuries and her chair only suffered a few scrapes. It could have been much worse! While reports differ as to Law's exact actions that may or may not have caused the crash, the point remains that it's extremely dangerous to expect people with disabilities to share the roadways with cars.
[Photo caption: Ariel picture of a busy roadway with several cars. There's a painted wheelchair lane with one wheelchair user in the distance.]
Police explain their reasoning for this interpretation of the law that motorized wheelchairs should follow the same rules of the road that govern bicyclists. This doesn't make sense. Most of us don't reach the same speeds as bicycles and none of us have the visibility that one achieves by sitting up on a bike. Motorists expect to see bikes on the road. Wheelchairs? Not so much! If a road has a sidewalk, wheelchair users and pedestrians are safer there.
This debate reminded me of one of my first forays into advocacy...
There I was-a wee freshman at Wright State University. Our campus has this ingenious tunnel system that allows you to eliminate the need to walk outside-especially useful during Dayton winters. The tunnels have some steep ramps and it's a wheeler's dream if you're late to class. You can really fly!
With so many wheelers at WSU, you're bound to have some bad drivers amongst the bunch. Allegedly there were a few students mowed down. One student government official published the bright idea that wheelers should be segregated to their own "lane" in the tunnels. This student wanted cones or a dividing line to literally partition students in wheelchairs from the others mingling in the tunnels. The school paper interviewed me on the issue. Looking back-I'm proud of my feisty comments that pointed out the issues of exclusion, segregation, and overblown fear that plagued this idea. In the end, there are no lanes for students with disabilities and still many a happy wheeler flying down the ramps.
