yeah, like why do they roam around on those wheel chairs with no backrest, looking like a Flintstone gokart
People in wheelchairs are actually excited to be 5 inches forward of everyone they're trying to talk to. The handles hitting the bench backrest is the inclusivity they crave.
Also this doesn’t help disabled people at all. It’s anti-homeless, plain and simple, there’s no “social justice” spin they can make of this.
Imagine the money that went into consulting about these anti-homeless measures*, designing them*, going through the processes of manufacturing and installing them, and disposing of the perfectly usable and superior benches afterwards.
*(not actually difficult, but it's capitalism, we all know whatever was responsible for this was grifting on the side)
They actually went through with this design? Last I saw it it was just concept art being thrown around.
You can’t use that for meaningless optics. Plus you have to spend precious capital creating a new design, whereas with this you can use the old design, make a tiny alteration that saves you money on material, and cash in on the contract.