Getting around Montreal’s slippery sidewalks is no easy task for Barbara Weiss.
The Hampstead resident suffers from severe arthritis and struggles to walk and pay at parking meters.
Weiss is demanding that Montreal change its parking policies and allow free on-street parking for all people who have disability parking permits.
She took her case to Montreal’s city hall Monday night where she was able to put the question directly to the mayor.
“Why should a progressive city like Montreal have such as a backward policy?” she asked during the public question period.
Toronto offers free on-street parking for the handicapped and Weiss says so do many other North American cities.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre promises to look into the situation and to conduct a major review of the city’s parking policies.
“We need to find a balanced approach that’s fair,” Coderre said Monday night in council.
But that’s not good enough for Weiss.
“I felt like it was saying, it was telling me, ‘Go away lady, we want our money for our meters and we’re not doing anything to help anybody,” she told Global News Tuesday afternoon.
Montreal has a free app that allows people to pay for parking from a distance without ever having to approach a parking meter.
But Weiss argues many senior citizens with limited mobility aren’t smartphone savvy and prefer to pay at stations.
“I worry about slipping, walking the extra length I don’t have to walk, and mostly falling,” she said.
Weiss promises to continue applying pressure on the city – she’s planning to follow up with a letter to the mayor – hoping at least a pilot project can be put in place to offer free parking in the months ahead just as old man winter sets in.