Thousands of British Columbians with disabilities who rely on HandyDART for their transportation fear the recent changes made to the service will lead to even longer wait times.
Those dependent on HandyDART held a meeting earlier today to discuss how more people with disabilities are refused rides by the service and left waiting for hours, even days in some cases. Without the service disabled residents are unable to grocery shop, meet up with friends or get out at all.
“Other folks in society who get homebound are sentenced to house arrest for committing a crime,” says former Vancouver City Councillor Tim Louis. “We ain’t committed no crime and so we shouldn’t be committed or sentenced to house arrest.”
A pilot project with taxis to help ease the strain on HandyDART is being used; as well passengers are given Taxi faresavers to help reduce costs. But some don’t see this as a reasonable solution.
“Our drivers are trained to make sure that our passengers not only get to the door safely, they are trained to get them tied down to the wheelchairs properly and how to deal with emergency procedures,” says HandyDART driver Mark Beeching.
Translink was invited to the meeting but declined the offer and instead sent a written statement that defends the changes.
It states: “Many of our customers will experience increased service and we expect this to result in 7,000 more trips for our HandyDART customers and reduce the number of trips requested but not met. A taxi will only be sent if the customer can be accommodated by one, if not, then they will be accommodated by a HandyDART vehicle.”
Those fighting say they will continue gathering and speaking out with the hope that the fight for HandyDART becomes an election issue.
Comments