More accessible taxis hit the streets
After an announcement in St. John’s Wednesday, more people living with disabilities will be able to do what most take for granted – call a cab.
Lisa Dempster, Minister Responsible for the Status of Persons with Disabilities, announced the rollout of new accessible taxis in the province outside the Empower NL offices Wednesday.
The additional accessible taxis are part of an effort to relieve some of the limitations faced by people with disabilities that others don’t think about.
“We don’t think about these people who need some special provision, it could be going out to a family wedding, it could be a baby shower, it could be the grocery store, and three years ago we did not have any accessible taxis in our province and today we have eight communities and we have 2,000 accessible taxi runs a month,” Dempster said.
Dempster’s office offered a $2,500 grant for wheelchair accessible taxis to interested companies. Since 2015, 11 grants have been awarded to retrofit taxis for accessibility.
“This is about providing individuals the ability to call a cab at a moment’s notice,” Dempster said.
“The feedback has been absolutely positive,” said Evan Bursey, of Bursey’s Taxi Inc. in Conception Bay South, who has been getting calls daily for the accessible taxi.
Bursey recounted how one of the early users of the accessible taxi hugged him and started crying when he came to pick her up for the first time, saying that in four years she had been out of the house three times on medical trips.
In the month since Bursey began operating the accessible taxing she has been out of the house 12 to 15 times on trips.
The accessible taxis are an important step in the right direction,
but as Emily Christy of the Coalition of Persons with Disabilities Newfoundland and Labrador told The Telegram
last year, “While accessible taxis are great, it is also important to consider affordability. For everyday life, there needs to be more accessible public transit.”
Accessible taxis are currently being offered for the same price as a standard taxi ride.