Accessibility for people in wheelchairs, seniors on scooters and parents with small children will form part of the Open Space Trails Master Plan, which should be coming to the public within the next three to four weeks.
Vernon Hamm, a member of the committee who studied the issue of accessibility in the community– and uses a wheelchair himself – said he made several recommendations about how the trail system and the uptown core can be made more accessible.
“We did an exercise and we went on an excursion all over the town, different groups of us, and I broke my wheelchair on one of the intersections and this is what really brought everything to kind of a head,” he said, noting that in some places in the uptown core, the sidewalk cut-outs at intersections are too steep, while in others, they don't go down far enough to allow for wheels to easily make the transition or are missing altogether. “Access to parks for seniors is very difficult because there's no sidewalks going into the seating areas.”
Hamm said in many cases, cutouts to sidewalks are only available on one side of the street.
“A good example of course, is Highway 27, but Highway 27 isn't the town's responsibility, unfortunately. But you go to Tim Hortons there, and you can't get off one side (of the sidewalk) but you can get on the other side,” he said.
Linda Maxwell, executive director of Accredited Supports to the Community, said cutouts on sidewalks have improved, as have marked parking stalls. But she said it's still common in older buildings in town to have only stairs rather than pathways for wheelchairs or scooters. Narrow doorways in buildings or doorways that are too wide and without automatic doors are also an issue for some. Maxwell, who estimated about 10 per cent of Accredited Supports' clients have some type of mobility impairment, whether they use a wheelchair or have an unsteady gait, said for ASC clients, the town's trail system seems to be adequate.
“It's not just people we deal with (at ASC), it's the whole population (including seniors),” she said.
Hamm said he suggested that the trails be wide enough so that two people can walk side by side along them. He also said that in many cases, the sidewalks in town are too narrow to accommodate someone using a wheelchair or scooter.
Hamm said the committee hasn't yet decided which of the recommendations would be at the top of the priority list.
The committee looking into various aspects of the Open Space Trails Master Plan was struck in October 2011. The first meeting of the committee was in March 2012.
