Yep. It can take very little for something to become inaccessible.
I use crutches with icepicks to get around in the ice and snow. A citywide #transit route redesign removed the stop at the nearest T-intersection.
The new stop is only ~2x as far, which is still VERY close by local standards. But it may as well be on Mars.
Why?
1/x
Well, as I mentioned, the old stop was at a T-intersection. I had to cross a single road to get to the stop, and because it was a bus route, the city ploughed it regularly throughout #winter.
Hereabouts, non-major roads are NOT ploughed until the snowpack becomes too deep for emergency vehicles. (The rest of us can just eff off, I suppose?).
2/x
Now, while the #BusRoute street was routinely cleared of #snow, it left large #windrows across the curbcuts to get from sidewalk to the road surface. Neither the city nor homeowners tended to do much about this.
If one were relying on a #rollator or a #wheelchair, one was already completely screwed (assuming the sidewalks to that point were cleared 😂 or that no one has accidentally parked on them bc the snowpack has erased the continuous-curve to level or higher 😂😂😂)
3/x
But that stop is long gone now, and so too is the #BusRoute that served it. This also means that this street is no longer considered essential for city #SnowClearance.
As mentioned, no big deal, right? That new stop is still close by even though ~2x as far.
But …
5/x
To get to the new stop, one must scale icy, RARELY-cleared sidewalks up a slope. The slope is so minor I suspect drivers are completely unaware of it.
But anyone using an #AssistiveDevice will likely find the slope quite obvious and perhaps a barrier even IF the sidewalks were cleared.
Regardless, that's NOT what makes the whole thing just as easy as catching a bus on Mars.
6/x
I mean, sure, to get to the new stop one also has to hit a #BegButton that has been explicitly timed for traffic on a four-lane (six if parking lanes are included) major feeder road.
Depending on whether the bus is on time or not, one can be early for the bus but still watch it whiz past as one awaits the #PedestrianLight to change.
Then it'll be another 20-30 min to await the next one, with no shelter from #traffic, #wind, or #rain / #snow.
7/x
Aside: A shelter WAS there previously, but earlier in the #pandemic a vehicle pancaked atop the shelter, destroying it and ALL related signage wrt this spot being an actual #ETS #transit stop.
I called #311 for weeks and was literally treated as though I were lying (despite media having a pic and everything!!!) and only when I called a city coucillor did the city bother to install a new sign.
Still no #shelter to this very day.
8/x
And that #BegButton for the #PedestrianCrossing? Even in the most perfect non-#winter conditions, it favours vehicular traffic so much that I am often NOT QUITE all the way to the curb on the other side.
Again, busy 4-lane feeder road with plenty of roaring traffic. 🙄😡
9/x
But none of the above is what makes the journey to the new bus stop about as easy as getting to Mars if one is #disabled.
The key bit goes back to that sloped #sidewalk I mentioned earlier.
The sidewalk itself is generally level (unlike most around here), which is great.
The adjacent residents rarely/never clear the sidewalk of snow, which is pretty bad but for me NOT the final nail in the coffin of #accessibility.
10/x
The final nail comes back to #RoadClearance.
You see, this 'new' stop has been around longer than I'ved lived in the neighbourhood. I would NEVER attempt to use it most of the year even back when it had better frequency than the closer stop.
You see, #Edmonton not only doesn't bother to clear #residential roads of snow, they don't bother to do #alleyways either.
And that slope is bisected by an alley.
11/x
The thing about #alleys is that where a sidewalk intersect with them is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONSTRUCTION than when a sidewalk intersects with a road.
Sidewalks + roads = #CurbCuts
Sidewalks + alleys = sharp or slightly angled curb that slopes across the entire sidewalk to meet the road
In other words, there are two deep, irregular slopes bracketing the alleyway that span across most of the #sidewalk.
12/x
I cannot successfully navigate the alley's sidewalk breach with a #rollator.
I suspect the same holds for most folks using wheelchairs (excepting perhaps someone athletic enough to both tip sideways on one wheel and also go down/up and irregular slope on the remaining wheel???).
One could likely get through with a tiny umbrella #stroller, but those aren't #AssistiveDevices nor would they be able to be used as one.
13/x
And me not being able to manage the sidewalk-alley #intersection? I am actually referring to non-#winter conditions. I can only go there if I am using a cane/crutches and the conditions are perfect.
14/x
When #winter hits, the sidewalk-alley #intersections are NOT ploughed at all.
#Alley traffic creates an ever-rising snowpack that *sometimes* erases much of the problem with the intersection slopes themselves BUT once this starts to melt, the entire section is 100% #impassable if relying on #cane, #crutches, #rollator, or #wheelchair.
15/x
IRONCIALLY, this situation was manageble when we had the prior #BusRoute, simply due to #SnowClearance and #WinterMaintenance.
Back then, the local road was #ploughed and #salted or #sanded regularly.
So even though sidewalk-alley intersections were impassable, if you could get ON to the road surface itself, the region could still be traversed.
16/x
Walking/rolling up/down a slope on a #winter road was *staggeringly dangerous*, as again, this road carries vehicular traffic and let's just say #Edmonton drivers seem to be keeping up with the trend of not really noticing anything else in their vicinity. 😬
But ironically that dangerous circumstance was ACCESSIBLE.
🙄😡
17/x
Sooo anyhow … sorry for the detailed reply but yeah, it doesn't take much to change an ENTIRE SYSTEM to be no longer #accessible for #disabled people.
Fortunately for me, I still have access to a vehicle when needed. But until all of the above emerged with the bus route redesign, I did 95% of EVERYTHING via #transit, versus 0% now.
Removing one thing (a bus route and repated area maintenance) erased it ALL.
18/fin
Likely Jan Lukas