[VIDEO] Southern Brooklyn’s Backwards Wheelchair Lady In Action

Bensonhurst’s backwards wheelchair lady is a local legend in her own time, a defier of logic who wheels in the wrong direction and appears to have full use of her legs, occupying a wheelchair only by choice — or so many of those who have seen her believe.

For real, though, the backwards wheelchair lady has been evidenced in multiple accounts and video clippings scattered around the Internet (on Vine, on YouTube, on Reddit) and now a tipster has sent us a video, to proudly host here on the Bean’s site.

We’ve written of the backwards wheelchair lady once before, back in 2012. From that post:

…there is apparently a middle-aged woman who rides a wheelchair backwards up and down 86th street, bearing flowers and wearing a yellow rain poncho – even on sunny days. Many seem to doubt that she is unable to walk, as witnesses have reportedly seen her pushing off quite well with her legs to get herself going.

According to one Redditer, “Any residents of SW brooklyn (Bay Ridge and the like) are all about The backwards wheelchair lady.”

Furthermore, according to the Redditer, the wheelchair lady is able to attain great speeds while moving backwards:

Anecdotal evidence of travel speed: Friend of mine was getting on the B1 on 13th and 82nd (no longer there, now a B64 stop, so this was years ago) across from the Library and saw BWL go into Tasty Pastry. He was riding the bus to Coney when around 23av he saw BWL come out of the mcdonalds under the el, food in lap, kickstrolling her way down the street. If you have both an understanding of geography and bus travel times, then you should understand a certain impossibility at hand.