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Public

@meganL

Yep. It can take very little for something to become inaccessible.

I use crutches with icepicks to get around in the ice and snow. A citywide route redesign removed the stop at the nearest T-intersection.

The new stop is only ~2x as far, which is still VERY close by local standards. But it may as well be on Mars.

Why?

1/x





Public

@meganL

Well, as I mentioned, the old stop was at a T-intersection. I had to cross a single road to get to the stop, and because it was a bus route, the city ploughed it regularly throughout .

Hereabouts, non-major roads are NOT ploughed until the snowpack becomes too deep for emergency vehicles. (The rest of us can just eff off, I suppose?).

2/x





Public

@meganL

Now, while the street was routinely cleared of , it left large across the curbcuts to get from sidewalk to the road surface. Neither the city nor homeowners tended to do much about this.

If one were relying on a or a , one was already completely screwed (assuming the sidewalks to that point were cleared 😂 or that no one has accidentally parked on them bc the snowpack has erased the continuous-curve to level or higher 😂😂😂)

3/x

Public

@meganL

But on icepick-fitted , I could usually summit these if I took it slow and careful.

It only became dangerously impassable if there was unseasonably warm weather or spring melts where the windrow becomes a mini ice .

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Public

@meganL

But that stop is long gone now, and so too is the that served it. This also means that this street is no longer considered essential for city .

As mentioned, no big deal, right? That new stop is still close by even though ~2x as far.

But …

5/x

Public

@meganL

To get to the new stop, one must scale icy, RARELY-cleared sidewalks up a slope. The slope is so minor I suspect drivers are completely unaware of it.

But anyone using an will likely find the slope quite obvious and perhaps a barrier even IF the sidewalks were cleared.

Regardless, that's NOT what makes the whole thing just as easy as catching a bus on Mars.

6/x



Public

@meganL

I mean, sure, to get to the new stop one also has to hit a that has been explicitly timed for traffic on a four-lane (six if parking lanes are included) major feeder road.

Depending on whether the bus is on time or not, one can be early for the bus but still watch it whiz past as one awaits the to change.

Then it'll be another 20-30 min to await the next one, with no shelter from , , or / .

7/x

Public

@meganL

Aside: A shelter WAS there previously, but earlier in the a vehicle pancaked atop the shelter, destroying it and ALL related signage wrt this spot being an actual stop.

I called #311 for weeks and was literally treated as though I were lying (despite media having a pic and everything!!!) and only when I called a city coucillor did the city bother to install a new sign.

Still no to this very day.

8/x

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@meganL

And that for the ? Even in the most perfect non- conditions, it favours vehicular traffic so much that I am often NOT QUITE all the way to the curb on the other side.

Again, busy 4-lane feeder road with plenty of roaring traffic. 🙄😡

9/x




Public

@meganL

But none of the above is what makes the journey to the new bus stop about as easy as getting to Mars if one is .

The key bit goes back to that sloped I mentioned earlier.

The sidewalk itself is generally level (unlike most around here), which is great.

The adjacent residents rarely/never clear the sidewalk of snow, which is pretty bad but for me NOT the final nail in the coffin of .

10/x

Public

@meganL

The final nail comes back to .

You see, this 'new' stop has been around longer than I'ved lived in the neighbourhood. I would NEVER attempt to use it most of the year even back when it had better frequency than the closer stop.

You see, not only doesn't bother to clear roads of snow, they don't bother to do either.

And that slope is bisected by an alley.

11/x

Public

@meganL

The thing about is that where a sidewalk intersect with them is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONSTRUCTION than when a sidewalk intersects with a road.

Sidewalks + roads =
Sidewalks + alleys = sharp or slightly angled curb that slopes across the entire sidewalk to meet the road

In other words, there are two deep, irregular slopes bracketing the alleyway that span across most of the .

12/x




@meganL

I cannot successfully navigate the alley's sidewalk breach with a .

I suspect the same holds for most folks using wheelchairs (excepting perhaps someone athletic enough to both tip sideways on one wheel and also go down/up and irregular slope on the remaining wheel???).

One could likely get through with a tiny umbrella , but those aren't nor would they be able to be used as one.

13/x





Public

@meganL

And me not being able to manage the sidewalk-alley ? I am actually referring to non- conditions. I can only go there if I am using a cane/crutches and the conditions are perfect.

14/x


Public

@meganL

When hits, the sidewalk-alley are NOT ploughed at all.

traffic creates an ever-rising snowpack that *sometimes* erases much of the problem with the intersection slopes themselves BUT once this starts to melt, the entire section is 100% if relying on , , , or .

15/x

Public

@meganL

IRONCIALLY, this situation was manageble when we had the prior , simply due to and .

Back then, the local road was and or regularly.

So even though sidewalk-alley intersections were impassable, if you could get ON to the road surface itself, the region could still be traversed.

16/x





Public

@meganL

Walking/rolling up/down a slope on a road was *staggeringly dangerous*, as again, this road carries vehicular traffic and let's just say drivers seem to be keeping up with the trend of not really noticing anything else in their vicinity. 😬

But ironically that dangerous circumstance was ACCESSIBLE.

🙄😡

17/x





Public

@meganL

Sooo anyhow … sorry for the detailed reply but yeah, it doesn't take much to change an ENTIRE SYSTEM to be no longer for people.

Fortunately for me, I still have access to a vehicle when needed. But until all of the above emerged with the bus route redesign, I did 95% of EVERYTHING via , versus 0% now.

Removing one thing (a bus route and repated area maintenance) erased it ALL.

18/fin