For some disabled St. John's residents, winter isn't just inconvenient — it's isolating
Slippery surfaces, piles of snow mean some with physical disabilities are stuck inside
When Mandy Penney leaves her downtown St. John's apartment building during the winter, she can't go very far before she's forced to turn around.
The sidewalk has been plowed, but the layer of snow left behind means her power wheelchair can get stuck — it's happened before, right outside the building. Luckily, a passing stranger was able to help.
"It is nerve-racking," she said in an interview with CBC News.
For Penney, winter is a time of isolation and frustration.
"I even tell people I'm not my best self in the winter 'cause I'm frustrated with how isolated I am and stuck in my house," she said.
During the warmer seasons, Penney said, she often uses her wheelchair to get where she needs to go. During the winter, she relies on the GoBus, an on-demand service operated by Metrobus.
But that service is in such high demand that Penney needs to book at least a day in advance and has to allow for potential delays. That means last-minute plans are out of the question unless she can find a ride.
"If my work schedule changes or my friends want to do something I might not be able to do it because you have to book it in advance, whereas if the sidewalks were cleared I could probably roll wherever I need to go."
Over the past three years, the City of St. John's began clearing an additional 14 kilometres of sidewalks. City crews now clear 175 kilometres of sidewalks during the winter. In the most recent municipal budget, the City of St. John's allocated $25.5 million for snow clearing, a 25.4 per cent increase earmarked for new equipment.
Penney said she has seen improvements in the city's snow-clearing efforts but she still isn't able to venture out onto the sidewalks.
'A guessing game'
Philip Strong, a blind St. John's resident, also struggles with isolation during the winter. The city doesn't plow the sidewalk in front of his home, he said, so he relies on rides to get where he needs to go.
For years, Strong worked in universal design, a type of design which prioritizes accessibility. He said the city is doing some things right but can still improve.
Strong would like the city to implement more tactile, bumpy strips on curb cuts — a way to warn blind people when they're near the edge of a sidewalk.
"It tells me that I shouldn't go any further," he said.
He also wants the city to install more audible crosswalk signals, a feature available at some, but not all intersections, designed to alert blind or partly blind pedestrians when it is safe to cross.
Filling the gaps
Amer Afridi, the city's divisional transportation manager, said his team is working to make sidewalks and crosswalks more accessible through projects like street rehabilitation. Previously, he said, audible crosswalk signals were implemented only by request but will now be part of the design of any new crosswalk signals.
Afridi said tactile plates are installed at almost every new signalized intersection, depending on how busy that intersection is.
"Most of the time it's demand-based," he said.
He said the city is prioritizing shared-use paths, meant for pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users and others, with three projects currently in progress. He said the city plans to have 15 kilometres of shared-use paths in the next two to three years, with an eventual goal of 160 kilometres of shared-use paths.
Despite the improvements, Afridi said, he knows the city still needs to work on accessibility.
"We see where there are some gaps, always, and we try to fill that in," he said.
This story is part of a St. John's Morning Show series called Safe Travels, all about getting where you need to go, safely. If there's a story in your community you'd like us to explore, get in touch at [email protected].
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