Rolling Traveler

For my first US city overview, I’ve chosen San Francisco. Having been lucky enough to live there for 18 months, I know the Bay Area very well, and it is now an annual holiday destination for me, both due to the many good friends I made there and because it has a lot to offer as a tourist destination: excellent restaurants, interesting and historic sights, a great public transport network, and an atmosphere all its own. Like most US cities, it is very wheelchair friendly, at least to the extent that the city had any say in the matter: all public buildings and most services and businesses are fully accessible, but the topography of the peninsula San Francisco stands on presents an obstacle that no amount of legislation can overcome. You can’t sue a hill for making it difficult for you to get around. In terms of the infrastructure, San Francisco rates a Very Good, but in terms of how independently a manual wheelchair user can sightsee, it rates a Good.

(more…)