The drive into Montreal is the easy part for Barbara Dubrofsky.
The Hampstead resident suffers from severe arthritis and struggles every time she has to pay at a parking meter.
“I have problems with my hands,” she said.
Dubrofsky’s hands are clenched and she walks with a limp.
She’s calling on Montreal city officials to change the parking policies and offer free street parking to those with disability parking permits, which is the case in Toronto.
“I’m sad that a city like Montreal wouldn’t automatically do this for the handicapped,” she said.
Dubrofsky plans to make her case at the next Montreal council meeting on Nov. 21.
She says as difficult as it is now, it’s a lot worse in the winter when the sidewalks are covered in snow and ice.
“You risk falling, you risk slipping, breaking something,” she said.
Montreal has more than 200 reserved spaces for people with reduced mobility.
But the person in charge of the city’s transportation policies isn’t planning to offer any free parking for people with handicapped parking permits.
“We’re trying to have to make it easier for everyone and make the city for everyone. This is the way we’re thinking at the administration for now,” Aref Salem told Global News.
The city does offer a free app for smartphones so that people can pay from a distance but that’s not good enough for Dubrofsky.
She says many senior citizens don’t feel comfortable using smartphones. Dubrofsky says she herself has bee a victim of identify theft which makes her hesitant.
Dubrofsky just hopes she can convince Mayor Denis Coderre to change Montreal’s parking policies so the city can catch up to the rest of North America.
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