By Neil Faba
For Ottawa residents with disabilities, a missed bus often means a day without transportation.
Para Transpo is the primary means of transportation for these residents. But the service’s limited hours of operation often force clients to look for other ways to get around. If you use a wheelchair, a taxi isn’t a viable option.
“(Para Transpo) is quite a silly system,” says Yves Thauvette, a Centretown resident who uses a wheelchair. “I get really flustered with it. I’m not into the system, really. I take it because I have to, and I think other people with disabilities feel the same.
“I think there is a need for accessible cabs, so people with disabilities can do spur of the moment things, like go downtown,” he says.
The City of Ottawa is currently reviewing over sixty applications for accessible cab licences. The applications follow a spring announcement that the city would offer 12 new non-transferable accessible cab licences, the first new Ottawa licences offered since 1976.
Ottawa currently has just three of the specially retrofitted vans, all which are stationed at the MacDonald-Cartier Airport.
A report released last month by the Ottawa Transition Board’s Taxi Project Team briefly addresses the need for accessible cabs in Ottawa, among its other recommendations for taxi reform in the new city.
“What we would like is to have all cabs accessible,” says Stephanie Machel, project co-ordinator for the team. “It is that way in London, England. But to implement that for January 1, 2001 would require a complete overhaul of all cabs on the road.”
Boyle says many taxi operators have expressed concern that the cost of operating the cabs is too high.
While a taxi licence from the city costs less than $500, an accessible taxi costs between $45,000 and $60,000 to purchase, and even more to maintain.
Debra Szirtes, vice-president of West-Way Taxi, which operates two of the region’s accessible cabs, echoes those sentiments.
“The taxis cost more to operate than Para Transpo. If the provincial government offered funding, that would probably encourage more owners to operate accessible cabs.”
Boyle says the fact the new licences will be non-transferable is a major step toward reducing operating costs.
Under the current system, city-issued licences are often bought by brokers, who resell them to drivers for up to $100,000.
The city hopes to have the new cabs on the road by December at the latest, and Thauvette says that’s not a moment too soon.
“If you’re in the Market and you get a flat tire (on your wheelchair), you’re in trouble,” he says. “If you miss your bus, there are no other options.”