VANCOUVER— Waiting an hour or more for a taxi is part of Nancy Lear’s daily life — and that’s an unacceptable reality, say disability advocates.

Over the Canada Day long weekend, another woman made headlines after she waited outside for an hour to get a wheelchair accessible taxi. The incident is shining a light on the lack of transportation options for people with disabilities.

Lear, who has muscular dystrophy and cannot move her limbs, said that since moving to Vancouver five years ago, it has been a constant challenge to get accessible taxis to show up, even when she books one ahead of time.

“It’s really difficult and I don’t know why because they say they have a lot of accessible cabs in the fleet. Even when you reserve a wheelchair cab, sometimes it doesn’t even show when you’ve reserved it a day in advance,” she said.

For example, sometimes she will go to social events that end around 9 p.m., she said, but her ride home — a van taxi — won’t show up until 11 p.m. In general, Lear said travelling anywhere by taxi after 3 p.m. is a gamble, and an hour-long wait is expected.

The unreliable nature of cabs is a well-known issue among the population of people with disabilities, Lear said, but she feels there’s little recourse for action.

“We’re all victims of this service. The advocacy organizations certainly put their word out there, but it doesn’t seem to change the situation much.”

Jane Dyson, director of Disability Alliance BC, said customers with disabilities shouldn’t have to wait longer for a cab than able-bodied customers.

“It’s not that unusual for a wheelchair user to wait an hour for a cab, particularly if it’s at a busy time, and that’s not acceptable,” she said.

Ruth Marzetti, executive director for the BC Association for Individualized Technology and Supports for People with Disabilities, said the issue has broader consequences.

“It has such implications for people with disabilities, it’s not just them, it’s their caregivers who are working with them and they need to get home,” she said. “It has a knock-on effect for everybody.”

For example, some of the board members for the organization where she works use wheelchairs and she often calls a cab for them so they can get home after a meeting. But wait times are a battle, she said, recalling a recent incident where the person gave up on the cab and wheeled themselves home instead.

Marzetti said she’s so frustrated that she has wondered whether her organization could buy a van to transport people home instead.

John Palis, senior manager of Vancouver Taxi, said that 40 per cent of the vehicles his company manages are wheelchair accessible even though it’s only required to have 15 per cent. Van taxis are more expensive to operate he said, and they don’t receive any government subsidies for adding more, so there’s little incentive to increase the percentage in the fleet.

“There’s a lot of people in demand for (taxis that can accommodate) wheelchairs,” Palis said.

But Vancouver Taxi is just one of many cab companies in Vancouver. Taxis are permitted by municipalities and governed by rules from the Passenger Transportation Board, both of which did not reply to interview requests before deadline.

In a statement, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said it encourages anyone who has been refused a ride by a taxi to report detailed information about the incident with the Passenger Transportation Branch and Consumer Protection B.C. so it can follow up on complaints and enforce rules.

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“Taxi licences with wheelchair-accessible vehicles are required, as part of their licence, to prioritize accessible calls, before customers who do not require accessibility,” it reads, and its enforcement officers can ticket taxi drivers $288 for refusing to pick someone up.

Stephanie Williams, director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation, said she’d like to see action by the Passenger Transportation Board to provide more reliable taxi service to those who have mobility access needs.

“With an aging population, we need to address this,” she said.

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