Bus stops here for TTC
Drivers on surface routes must call out every stop after blind lawyer wins second human rights ruling
Jul 27, 2007 04:30 AM
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
Two years after the TTC was ordered to announce all stops on its subways, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has given the transit system a month to do the same on buses and streetcars.
The tribunal ruled yesterday that the TTC violated the rights of blind lawyer David Lepofsky by failing to call all stops on surface routes. It was given 15 days to come up with a plan to train drivers and enforce the new policy.
Two years ago, following a 10-year fight by Lepofsky, the same adjudicator, Justice Alvin Rosenberg, ruled TTC personnel had to call each subway stop until an automated announcement system could be installed.
Yesterday Lepofsky said it was outrageous it's taken the TTC so long to expand the policy above ground. "This case was so obviously a loser that they should not have fought it," he said.
"I hope, given our city's budget problems, the TTC won't spend any more of the taxpayers' dollars fighting this or appealing, and that they put their effort instead into properly serving TTC patrons with disabilities like mine," he added.
During five days of hearings, the tribunal was told blind TTC riders can't relax for fear the driver will forget to call their stop.
They're taught to sit at the front and ensure that signs of their disability, such as a white cane, are obvious so the drivers won't forget about them.
The TTC argued its policy of calling only requested stops, major intersections and subway stations was adequate for blind and disabled patrons – and that between 1995 and 2006 it received only four complaints about missed stops by visually impaired riders.
Being required to call all stops would present a hardship and potential safety risk when drivers are navigating busy routes, argued the TTC lawyer.
But the tribunal heard that drivers are already under orders to call all stops when their transit vehicle is extremely crowded or bad weather makes it difficult for everyone to see out the windows.
"By giving these instructions it is clear that the TTC is prepared to accommodate sighted people who have some difficulties" but not blind people with "severe difficulties," wrote Rosenberg.
The TTC will not appeal the decision, said commission chair Adam Giambrone, who put the legal costs to fight the second Lepofsky case at between $100,000 and $200,000.
"By the end of the year, regardless of the decision, we would have been fully compliant" with automated station stop announcements, he said.
The TTC installed an automated system on subway trains soon after the first decision and is implementing the $6.6 million project on all surface routes.
In the meantime, the TTC will train drivers to announce all stops, Giambrone said.
"Many of these routes have over 100 different stops. Bus and streetcar drivers can change routes daily and it's a big challenge. You can appreciate the challenges of people asking directions, checking fares and driving on Toronto streets."
Until Lepofsky won the subway case, the TTC didn't enforce the call-out procedure, said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear.
"There's always been a requirement for operators to call out all major intersections and subway stops. That never changed, the enforcement of it changed," he said.
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Six complaints in 12 years on this issue? That's really not bad.
The problem here is that it is much harder to call out all stops with the midblocks and the minor intersections with different names on each side.
Drivers are a bti inconsistant about stop calling - most do the required major streets (some don't, but this is rare), and a few call out each street - they seem to more likely be streetcar drivers. Though unlike the automated announcements, the drivers' announcements are often more useful - the operator of the Queen Car will often call out the subway station as well as "Yonge Street" as well as the main landmarks (City Hall, St. Mike's) and even connecting routes.
That said, I do not mind at all the automated stop annoucements that are coming - they are short and direct compared to the subway annoucements - they never bothered me on the 11 Bayview.
