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The elderly have to go through a nursing home to get to the place where they can be picked up by car.
At Grefsen in Oslo, plans for a new elevated bike path are generating strong reactions. In fact, residents of 33 nursing homes in Grefsenveien will lose the opportunity to use their own main entrance when being transported and will have to pass through the Grefsenhjemmet nursing home to exit.
Several of the older residents are also in wheelchairs and rely on easy access to their apartments. The case is causing conservatives to rage locally in the district.
– 33 people will be locked up. This will make it extremely difficult for those who live there, says the district politician in the Nordre Aker district, Stig Eide Sivertsen (H), to Nettavisen.
Also read: The municipality’s bike path leaves the street for parking: – We could not believe it was true
LOCKED UP: District politician Stig Eide Sivertsen (H) believes 33 older residents will be locked in if plans for new bike lanes in the Grefsen senior housing in Oslo come true.
Photo: (1881)
– Not a good alternative
Following inquiries from residents, the Oslo Urban Environment Agency has rejected the possibility of adapting for pickup and drop-off by car outside the main entrance at Grefsenveien 78d, with reference to road safety for cyclists and pedestrians who pass.
District director Øyvind Henriksen in Nordre Aker district suggests that residents of the Grefsen senior housing association should pass through Grefsenhjemmet, which is located under the senior housing, to reach Ogmunds vei , next to the nursing home. Cars should be able to stop there to pick up residents.
– You cannot order the nursing home to accept traffic through the nursing home to your own apartment. So that option is not a good alternative. It should also be possible to stop and pick up older people outside their front door, Sivertsen believes.
It says residents have to go through three doors, and have to go through a sensory garden for the insane, which is located inside an atrium in the nursing home, in order to get to that exit.
THE PLANS: The proposal of the district director in the Nordre Aker district is that the residents of the apartments for the elderly should pass through the Grefsenhjemmet nursing home to exit (dotted line), including on a sensory garden in an atrium in the middle of the nursing home.
Photo: Nordre Aker District
– Elderly before elevated walkway
The plans were discussed at a meeting of the Environment, Planning and Transportation Committee in Nordre Aker on Monday, where the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Green Party voted in favor of the mayor’s proposal. While the conservatives and liberals voted against.
Sivertsen is now calling for a better solution to be found, so that residents can continue to use Grefsenveien as their main entrance.
– They must find a solution that allows the 33 older residents to leave their own home, and that they can use their usual entrance and exit. It’s completely unsatisfying going through a nursing home, plus it’s extremely impractical, he says, noting:
– There is a trade-off between the bike lane and the older residents, and then I think that, for once, the older residents can pass before an elevated crosswalk. There are already well-functioning bike lanes there.
The district politician also notes that Grefsenveien has just been upgraded for a lot of money.
– The road has been closed for 18 months. It is a bit strange to spend a large amount of money first fixing a road and as soon as it is ready to start dividing it again. But that’s not the main point, it’s that there are a number of people who live here who will have extremely difficult access if you do this, says Sivertsen.
Also read: Fabian Stang believes that the tram should be scrapped: – I think people would be surprised
MAIN ENTRANCE: Here is today’s main entrance to Senior Apartments, where cars will no longer be allowed to stop when the new elevated bike lanes are built. Older residents are referred to another exit on a street near the nursing home.
Photo: Google Maps
The nursing home: – Does not apply
The chairman of the board Magne Roland in Grefsenhjemmet, who has around 100 nursing patients, also strongly opposes the plans.
– The municipality asks us to allow people from another housing unit to move through our areas, that is, to walk on the neighbor’s property, Roland tells Nettavisen, before emphasizing:
– From our point of view, it is not relevant to open our areas to traffic for outsiders, because it will affect the operation of the nursing home and the safety of our patients.
He says the case will be considered at a board meeting at the Grefsenhjemmet Foundation on Tuesday evening, where the case will be treated as an urgent matter.
– When it is opened to the public and public traffic, as the city director suggests, outsiders will pass through the area where our insane patients are in a protected area, says Roland, and refers to the sensory garden that residents of housing for the elderly:
– It is a protected area that has been developed in accordance with the guidelines desired by the municipality of Oslo, that is, villages with dementia where people with dementia can move freely and should not feel trapped. If people from abroad travel heavily in this area, it will have a very disturbing effect on these patients, he says.
Also Read: Gave Residents Huge Bill – Then Parking Spaces Removed: – This Is Not How We Should Continue In This City
SAYS NO: – From our point of view, it is not relevant to open our areas to traffic for outsiders, because it will affect the operation of the nursing home and the safety of our patients, says President Magne Roland in Grefsenhjemmet about the district’s plans .
Photo: Private
– It will be fun
– But will this also be a long way for the neighbors?
– Yes, the access that the district plans for them is completely impossible for them because it is steep, it is long and it will completely prevent them from having contact with family members and the outside world, says Roland.
He believes the proposal is also special in light of the pandemic that is raging.
– Grefsenhjemmet has been practically sealed to outsiders for half a year. It would be funny if we randomly opened an asylum for strangers during a period when we closed it to traffic in and out of their relatives. So far we have not had Covid-19 among employees or patients, and we will continue to do so, he says.
Roland says there are six residents in the senior housing condo today who have parking space in the nursing home parking basement.
– In special situations, they pass through the area, but it is rare and there is no approved solution from Grefsenhjemmet, he says.
The board president says he also reacts to the district’s case processing.
– The Nordre Aker district has not asked us for anything. We have not been involved in the process, so from our point of view it is poor case processing and completely irresponsible, he says.
Also read: Oslo Municipality Introduces New Rules for Infection Control in Grocery Stores
District Director: – Don’t miss the opportunity
District director Øyvind Henriksen in Nordre Aker district notes that residents will still be able to use the current main entrance after a new bike lane has been built.
– Residents do not miss the opportunity to use their own main entrance. When the senior housing units were built in the upper part of Grefsenhjemmet in 1993, it was a clear condition that the housing had two entrances, Henriksen tells Nettavisen, noting that both Ogmunds vei and Grefsenveien were mentioned in the construction application as pathways access.
– The entrance from Ogmunds vei can be used as access to drive as provided in the case of original regulation. The entrance is also used today, both for access from the garage under Grefsenhjemmet and for access to the walkway, he says.
Henriksen says that access should be improved with automatic door openers and measures so that elevator access is universally designed for people with reduced mobility.
– Both cars and Rosabuss can drive to the outside front door, he says.
– Cyclists are forced to walk on rails.
Henriksen also rejects that the access from Ogmunds vei passes through the sensory garden of the nursing home, but through the atrium.
– The walkway can be protected from the sensory garden with simple means to meet the needs of all users, he says.
Regarding cars that cannot be stopped or parked in Grefsenveien, it says:
– In that case, the cyclists will be forced to go out on the track. There are countless examples of accidents as a consequence of these types of situations. As long as there is an alternate entrance from Ogmunds vei that can be used when residents drive to and from the houses, it is our recommendation and that of the Urban Environment Agency that this access be used for such use, says Henriksen.
It also rejects the claim that Grefsenhjemmet has not been involved in the process.
– The district was inspected by the director general of Grefsenhjemmet on October 16. In this inspection, the hope was expressed that it would be possible to build a parking pocket in Grefsenveien, but it was also understood that access from Ogmunds vei was used and could still be used by residents of the condominium, says the district director.
Also read: Bike lanes were completed last year, now the road is being excavated again
Parking spaces eliminated
As early as last year, parking spaces in Grefsenveien outside senior housing were removed, when red-painted bike lanes were placed on the street. Also at that time, the neighbors reacted and demanded that cars be allowed to park on the bike path because many are bad to the core and take a long time to get out, which is mentioned in Nordre Aker Budstikke.
The parking lots were used for home delivery, guests, and residents’ transportation.
The online newspaper also ran a 2018 reading post by former local Conservative Party politician in Nordre Aker Ellen Ronæss about her “Wheelchair Nightmare in Grefsenveien”. He said taxi drivers almost had to carry her over the curb.
Since parking spaces were removed, temporary stops outside homes have been allowed, but now it may be the end of whether the bike plans are implemented.
The case will be considered by the district committee in the Nordre Aker district next week.
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