Rolling backwards

>> As the physically handicapped community grows, transport services shrink

by GEORGE MADDUX

Say, for the purpose of hypothetical exploration, that your legs suddenly no longer worked. You get a wheelchair--maybe load it up with a pair of steel-belted radials--but how are you going to get to work, or do your shopping?

The metro is out of the question, as the rubber-wheeled underground was constructed with no thought to the wheelchair-rolling set. Some newer buses, the Novabuses specifically, are wheelchair accessible, but the top brass of the MUCTC have banned wheelchairs between 6:30-9:30 a.m. and 3:30-6:30 p.m.

That narrows down the public transport options of Montreal's fast-growing 14,000-strong disabled population to the Adapted Transport services of the MUCTC.

To become eligible for the bus service you must be unable to walk 400 metres, "mount a 35 centimetre stair, with or without help," or have "an inability to master situations or behaviours that could be prejudicial to one's own security or others."

But once you've proven your eligibility, you can't simply ring them up and get instant transport every time you get the urge to move. According to Dominique Marsan, president of the Regroupement des usagers du transport adapté, delays in reaching a representative on the phone range from half an hour to three hours.

And in spite of its impressive-sounding 89-vehicle fleet, 150 drivers and an annual budget of $25.4-million, requests are regularly shot down. Last-minute trips are out of the question, as the service requires 48 hours notice for any transport requests. On its Web site, the MUC Adapted Transport asks for a full 10 days advance warning for certain trips.

Marsan says that in today's workplace where employers demand flexibility, Adapted Transport is unwilling or unable to bend some of its rigid bureaucracy. Marsan had 13 years of struggling to get to work.

"I used to work in a library, where the boss was constantly asking for workers on short notice," says Marsan. "The formula for seniority became based on hours worked, but I couldn't come in on short notice because the Adapted Transport required more warning. I ended up going lower and lower on the list of seniority. The people who could get there on short notice were rewarded and I ended up at the bottom."

Marsan says that many others have experienced the same problem, which eventually forces them to stay home. "If the person stays cloistered at home, he won't get into the work culture and the self-esteem gets damaged."

With an ageing population and the deinstitutionalization of many psychiatric patients, the physically disabled community is growing fast, but the MUCTC Adapted Transport is looking to cut its services. Four thousand fewer lifts are likely to be offered in the coming year, group reservations will no longer be accepted and irregular demands for transport or changes will be harder to obtain, discouraging people with frequently changing schedules from getting out. Advocates say that disabled university students and others whose schedule changes periodically will be short-changed by the new policies.

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