The ＂blind＂ experts of the blind road gang called for the enactment of a barrier-free environment construction law

Li Fei (pseudonym) is a blind masseur in a blind massage shop in Chaoyang District, Beijing. He lives near the massage shop, and his usual trip is basically two points and one line between home and the shop.

"I don’t dare to go anywhere else. There are too many traffic nearby, and it is sometimes inconvenient to walk in the blind road. When I went out before, I was blocked by a bicycle several times, and I couldn’t move it. I didn’t dare to bypass the road next to it. That feeling was too helpless. " Li Fei said.

When the reporter of Rule of Law Daily investigated near Sun Palace in Chaoyang District, Beijing, it was found that the laying of blind roads was basically in place, but there were various items on the blind roads-bike-sharing, private cars, telephone poles, roadblocks and so on.

"The original intention of laying blind roads is indeed to provide convenience for the visually impaired. However, unreasonable behaviors and daily occupation behaviors in the laying process have artificially hindered the visually impaired from traveling. This problem shows that the construction of barrier-free cities still has a long way to go. " Liu Zhenjie, a researcher at the Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said.

The phenomenon that blind roads are occupied is not a new problem, nor is it unique to a certain place, but an old problem that is common in many places.

Liu Junhai, a professor at Renmin University of China, said in an interview with the reporter of Rule of Law Daily on May 14th that the road traffic safety law and other laws and regulations clearly stipulate the laying of blind roads, but the daily supervision and management of blind roads are not detailed enough. It is suggested to promote the relevant legislative revision at the national level, further refine the relevant regulations and strengthen the implementation of barrier-free laws and policies.

It is worth noting that during this year’s National People’s Congress, the Shanghai delegation submitted a proposal on behalf of the delegation for the first time to speed up the formulation of the barrier-free environment construction law, calling for the legal system to ensure the sustained, healthy and high-quality development of China’s barrier-free environment construction and meet the growing urgent needs of members of society for barrier-free environment construction.

The more blind people are, the more afraid they are to walk.

In order to effectively solve the outstanding problems in the field of barrier-free environment construction such as blind roads, Beijing launched a special promotion campaign within the city two years ago.

In November 2019, the "Action Plan for Further Promoting Barrier-free Environment Construction in Beijing in 2019-2021" was issued, which was the first time that Beijing launched a city-wide special promotion campaign for barrier-free environment. The action plan requires a comprehensive investigation of blind road setting and a study of blind road setting norms. The restoration of this restoration and the construction of this construction ensure that the blind road gang is "blind". Strengthen the daily supervision of blind roads, implement the requirements of handling complaints immediately, and stop investigating and dealing with acts of embezzlement and damage of blind roads at the first time.

In January of this year, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Communications issued a document saying that the special treatment of road accessibility in Beijing’s core urban areas and around important venues in 2020 has been fully completed, and a total of 1,060 pedestrian blind roads have been rectified.

The Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission pointed out that in order to improve the continuity and smoothness of blind roads and ensure that road barrier-free facilities are safer and more comfortable, while meeting the requirements of relevant work norms and standards, the urban maintenance center will further strengthen the smoothness management of blind roads and optimize the access path, connection form and layout style of barrier-free facilities. For example, in the past, blind roads encountered obstacles in a roundabout way. In this transformation process, blind roads were laid in a straight-through way for obstacles that did not affect traffic safety, so as to reduce detours.

After investigation in several regions, the reporter found that the vast majority of blind roads are blind roads laid in the form of direct access, and the bypass situation has been greatly improved. However, it is still common that blind roads are occupied.

Chen Mingsheng, a visually impaired person who lives in Fengtai District, Beijing, stumbled on the ground when he went out. After the fall, he was "bitten once, twice shy" and never dared to go out easily again. "Blind roads should have been the source of security for visually impaired people when they went out, but now, the more blind people are, the more afraid they are to go."

Li Qingzhong, chairman of the China Blind Association, pointed out that the unreasonable construction and occupation of blind roads have been difficult to solve for a long time and are affected by many factors. In recent years, with the rapid development of the city, the urban space is extremely limited, the overall planning and management level of the city can’t keep up with the development speed of the city, and the city still lacks clear management norms for barrier-free facilities.

Legislation in many places refines relevant regulations.

For the setting and maintenance of blind roads, laws and regulations such as the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons and the Law on Road Traffic Safety have made relevant provisions.

Article 53 of the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons stipulates that the construction and renovation of barrier-free facilities shall meet the actual needs of disabled persons. New construction, reconstruction and expansion of buildings, roads, transportation facilities, etc., shall comply with the relevant national standards for the construction of barrier-free facilities. People’s governments at all levels and relevant departments shall, in accordance with the national regulations on the construction of barrier-free facilities, gradually promote the transformation of completed facilities, and give priority to the transformation of public service facilities closely related to the daily work and life of disabled people. Barrier-free facilities should be maintained and protected in time.

Paragraph 2 of Article 34 of the Road Traffic Safety Law stipulates that the sidewalks of major urban roads should be provided with blind roads according to the plan. The setting of blind roads shall conform to the national standards.

The Regulations on the Construction of Barrier-free Environment stipulates that pedestrian overpasses and underpasses in major roads, major commercial areas and large residential areas in cities should be equipped with barrier-free facilities in accordance with the standards for the construction of barrier-free facilities, and sidewalk traffic signal facilities should gradually improve barrier-free service functions to meet the needs of disabled people and other social members.

In addition, some places have specially issued relevant laws and regulations, further refining the regulations on the construction and management of barrier-free facilities.

The Regulations of Beijing Municipality on the Construction and Management of Barrier-free Facilities stipulates that the laying of blind roads shall be continuous, and there shall be no obstacles such as telephone poles, guy wires, underground manholes, trees, etc. on the blind roads, and they shall be connected with the barrier-free facilities of surrounding public transport stops, overpasses, underground passages and public buildings.

The Blue Book of Disabled Persons’ Undertakings: Research Report on Disabled Persons’ Undertakings in China (2020 ~ 2021) shows that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, all localities made overall efforts to promote barrier-free environment construction in rural revitalization, new urbanization and renovation of old residential areas, and 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) issued the implementation measures of the Regulations on Barrier-free Environment Construction.

"These laws and regulations provide a strong institutional guarantee for promoting the smooth travel of the blind, but there are still areas to be improved. For example, laws and regulations such as the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons have made mandatory provisions on the laying of blind roads, but there is a lack of relevant provisions on the phenomenon of the occupation of blind roads, and the provisions on the responsibilities of government departments and penalties for illegal acts are not detailed enough. " Liu Junhai said.

Legislation clarifies the responsibilities of functional departments.

In January this year, during a daily visit, the procurator of Yuzhong District Procuratorate in Chongqing learned that the occupation of blind roads in some areas was very serious.

Peng Hao, the case undertaker and deputy director of the Procuratorial Department 3 of Yuzhong District Procuratorate, said that most of the occupied blind roads are located in the prosperous business district with a large flow of people. Some blind roads have been built with guard booths, construction enclosures and guardrails, while others are occupied by parked cars, while others are filled with goods such as boxes, which makes it difficult for visually impaired people to travel. The problem cannot be ignored.

On February 7th, after the approval of the Fifth Branch of Chongqing Municipal People’s Procuratorate, Yuzhong District Procuratorate filed an investigation. On March 1, the hospital issued a pre-litigation procuratorial proposal to the local authorities to urge them to perform their duties according to law and strengthen the safety supervision and daily maintenance of blind roads. After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the relevant departments attached great importance to it. After on-site investigation and investigation and evidence collection, special rectification was quickly carried out, and the problem of blind road occupation and "broken road" was quickly solved.

The reporter noted that procuratorial organs in Chongqing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei and other places carried out public interest litigation actions against the problem of irregular and occupied blind roads, which played a very good role.

"Procuratorial organs carry out the work of’ blind public interest litigation’, which is conducive to promoting relevant government departments to perform their duties according to law, promoting social governance and better protecting the rights and interests of disabled people. For the successful experience in this practice, it is recommended to summarize it when promoting relevant legislative work. " Sun Yuhua, an associate professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, said.

Liu Junhai believes that in order to promote the legislation of barrier-free environment construction at the national level, we should not only summarize some mature practices, but also adhere to the problem-oriented and improve the shortcomings in current laws and regulations.

"It is suggested to promote the legislative work of the barrier-free environment construction law as soon as possible, systematically standardize the construction and maintenance of barrier-free facilities, including blind roads, and further clarify the specific responsibilities that functional departments and social organizations should bear in barrier-free construction, in order to promote the high-quality development of barrier-free environment construction in China." Liu Junhai said.