Metro Vancouver HandyDART users push back against taxi substitutes

People with disabilities are calling for TransLink to come up with a solution as more people are increasingly being offered taxis when they have requested a ride with HandyDART.

According to TransLink, about one-in-five requests for a HandyDART ride ends up being provided by a taxi instead.

Beth McKellar with the HandyDART Riders Alliance says the taxi experience just doesn’t match what it’s like to get around through HandyDART directly.

“The system is a real mess,” McKellar told CityNews, who says riding with HandyDART is always the preference. “HandyDART drivers have protocol they follow. The main thing for them is the safety of the client.”

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According to TransLink’s website, HandyDART is a door-to-door bus service offered “for people who are unable to navigate conventional public transit without assistance.”

Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley is vice chair of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation and says the situation is letting people down.

“Taxis come and they’re not equipped to do this work,” Hurley said at a Mayors’ Council meeting on Thursday. “They’re dropping people off in really dark areas at 7 a.m. in the morning and they’re off to their next ride. And that’s not the taxi’s fault. That’s the business that they’re in.”

TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn says HandyDART’s contractor is working to improve the situation by hiring dozens of additional drivers this year.

“The number of trips provided by taxi service — I need to look into the numbers. The number I have is 17 per cent,” Quinn told the Mayors’ Council on Thursday. “It’s still higher than we want it to be.”

Quinn says TransLink is pushing the contractor which operates TransLink to hire more drivers, noting 36 operators have been added this year so far, with 40 additional hires planned.