Kelowna Regional Transit was put to the test by the CNIB on Tuesday.
Mayor Tom Dyas, along with representatives from BC Transit and KRT operator TransDev, went on a ride-along with people impacted by blindness.
While it might seem easy to find a bus stop in Kelowna, for someone with limited sight, it can be very challenging.
“A lot of signage is not accessible,” explained Tommy Leung, advocacy program lead with the CNIB, BC and Yukon Division. “They don’t have braille, they don’t have raised letters and that kind of makes identifying the bus stop very difficult for someone who is partially sighted or totally blind.”
The CNIB has been touring the country to point out why it’s so important to make transit more accessible. President and CEO Angela Bonfanti was in Kelowna for the ride-along.
“Every Statistics Canada report we see, we see quite a jump in the number of people with severe, prolonged vision loss. The last Statistics Canada report indicated approximately two million people in Canada, from 1.5 million just a few years before,” said Bonfanti.
She adds that vision loss is growing because we are living longer. “And if we’re living longer, we’re retiring later in life and we’re actually living in the community longer than we used to.
“So, transportation is absolutely key. We need to get it right for kids and for seniors and for everyone in between.”
Here in Kelowna, one of the emerging concerns is how some transit stops are installed on the road side of the bike lane along new active transportation corridors, creating a “floating bus stop”.
“What the hard part about a floating bus stop is, is that as a person that can’t see is walking along the sidewalk they often miss the bus stop altogether. They don’t know where they are and it’s hard to find,” noted Vittoria Spindor, community engagement coordinator with CNIB Kelowna.
Leung points out that another problem is crossing the bike lane when you can’t check to see if a cyclist is coming your way.
On a positive note, the CNIB says the new Umo transit app is making it easier for those with sight loss to plan and navigate Kelowna Regional Transit.