Taxi refuses to pick me up

Yesterday I rang to book a taxi but after waiting 15 minutes and the taxi company not being able to locate a taxi for me I went to the city to catch a bus instead. Just near the bus stop I saw a wheelchair taxi with some other taxis. I went up to the wheelchair taxi but the driver ignored me. A person not in a wheelchair did not see me but got into the taxi. I attracted the attention of this person and asked if he could catch one of the other taxis in the queue so he got out of the taxi and got into another one. The driver of the wheelchair taxi was then not able to continue ignoring me but stated that he would not take a person in a wheelchair despite him driving a wheelchair taxi. Other people in the vicinity became aware of our conversation and remonstrated with the driver who continued to say that he would not take a wheelchair.

Eventually I had to give up and go and catch a bus. I rang up the taxi company to complain as I had the taxi's number plate but was told that they could do nothing and I should complain to someone else, perhaps the taxi directorate.

Wheelchair taxis are of no use to me whatsoever!

Spoke too soon

The night after my last post I waited for a bus and when it arrived the ramp did not work so had to wait half an hour for the next bus.

Last night at 9:30 I waited 30 minutes for a bus in the freezing cold and when it arrived the automatic ramp didn't work again so couldn't get on the bus. It took me an hour and three quarters to get home by which time I couldn't talk due to being so cold.

Why is it that so many of the automatic ramps do not work? Is it that I am just unlucky or is it that so few people in wheelchairs travel on buses so they can get away with what appears to be a design or maintenance fault?

Why is it that I couldn't get a taxi in Carlton last night but when I went past the Casino there was a long line of wheelchair taxis waiting to take the punters home? How many of these people do you think were in wheelchairs?

What would it take to get the Government to take notice of the disabled and do something other than platitudes?

Why do we as a society not only tolerate but appear to encourage inequality even when all the evidence shows that inequality harms all of us, even the well-off?