In the context of the Cádiz carnival, a home video of a chirigotero from Cádiz disguised as a comedian has gone viral and precisely reveals a common injustice in dozens of cities and towns throughout Spain: impossible to get an adapted bus.
Discrimination not only for those looking for collective transport, but also for getting an adapted taxi, since users wait for hours to catch an accessible taxi in many cities across the country.
The chirigotero denounces that he cannot attend the contests with his companions when the carnival arrives or make any trips because there is no accessible bus available for him. The newspaper 'El portal de Cádiz' reflects it this way:
José David García 'El coñeta', a member of 'Amo escuchá (callejera chirigota)', has publicly denounced the discrimination he is experiencing by not being able to travel with his groupmates by bus to the different locations where they have to perform. The group recently won first prize in the 2023 Official Contest of Carnival Groups (COAC).
In a video posted on Facebook, García explains that this problem is repeated year after year due to the lack of an adapted bus. According to him, the transport companies tell them that there are no buses available or that they are reserved and that the ones that are available are more expensive. García believes that it is unfair that he cannot enjoy his group and feel like one of them after spending so much time rehearsing.
García denounces a discrimination that, although it is not new, he does consider "shameful" because it falls on deaf ears again, and he considers that "it seems that the fight we have had in recent years has been of no use." Along with other affected users, he denounces that "company fleets do not have adapted buses, or they are busy or more expensive."
"I don't pay more for an adapted taxi, I don't understand why I have to pay more for an adapted bus." "It is shameful!"
It is not a problem only in Cádiz or on adapted buses, it is also extrapolated to adapted taxis in many cities, such as Ciudad Real, where the service acknowledges that it "is saturated". The president of the taxi drivers' association himself affirms that there are only five adapted taxis in the capital of La Mancha and that means significant delays for users.
In Jerez de la Frontera, they denounce that there are users with reduced mobility who have to wait up to three hours for an adapted taxi, and that every weekend they are directly left without accessible services.
Also in Aragon there are mobility problems for people in wheelchairs if they want to take an adapted taxi. Some 270 people with mobility problems are on the waiting list to use an adapted taxi in the capital, and from the group itself, they allege that there are not enough vehicles for the almost 800 people who request it.
These are just a few examples of large urban centers with problems in public service vehicle fleets that, for various reasons, do not meet the real needs of groups and citizens with reduced mobility.
