COHAC Call for Action
Central Okanagan HandyDart Action Coalition requests urgent action on the following issues, to enable enhanced quality of life, through access to the essentials of daily life for our clients. (For the participating service groups in COHAC, please refer to Appendix A)
The Kelowna Regional HandyDart service provides an essential service to a vulnerable population. From a survey of our clients, it is clear that this service is valued and appreciated, even though there are areas the require urgent attention. (See Appendix E for the results of our survey)
The Issues As part of the Transit Future Report of 2012, a number of shortcomings of the current service were identified. While we welcome action on the recommendations, there are a number of issues with these conclusions and recommendations (See Appendix C for full list):
- The first recommendation concerns the registration process and the need to re-screen current users. This presents a number of concerns: - There is a presumption that reducing the numbers of registered users will reduce the requests for rides. This is a false assumption, as not all registered users are currently able to access the system. - Any re-screening of users will bring unnecessary stress to our vulnerable clients. - We have learnt that those registered users who only use TaxiSaver vouchers have already been removed from the lists. These clients have not been contacted. Removing these names from the list serves no purpose, and could create more confusion and stress if they were to change to using the full HandyDart service.
- The next three points of the Transit Future report recommendations all cover the conflict between scheduled service and semi-spontaneous service. We are deeply concerned this, as the reality is that the "semi-spontaneous" service is effectively limited to 4 hours during the day. The trips that our clients take during these times are crucial to their independence, with such every day tasks as medical appointments, shopping and banking needing to take place. Our clients highlight this as an area of concern to them (Appendix E). This needs urgent attention.
- Both in these bullets points and the final bullet point, expanding service is mentioned, but no solution or schedule is addressed. In addition to conflict between scheduled and semi-spontaneous services, our clients also highlight these concerns:
- While the Peachland area is mentioned in the Transit Future report, no mention is made of the Regional Distrist of the Central Okanagan (RDCO). Clients in Ellison are overlooked and receive no service while the buses go past to serve Lake Country. There must be more consistency within the Central Okanagan. This small change would make a huge difference to small group of our clients.
- Clients who are reliant on HandyDart as their only means of transport are unable to go out for dinner, to go to the movies in the evening, to go to church, to go anywhere on Sundays or holidays, for example. For an already isolated population, the HandyDart service needs to address these needs, and provide a service that reflects the opportunities that are available to the able bodied community who use the regular transit system. As one of our clients told us, "our lives do not end at 6pm"