Saskatoon care home residents wishing for accessible bus stop

Across the street from a group of four adult and senior care homes in Saskatoon’s Silverspring neighbourhood sits a public bus stop equipped with a simple shelter and concrete pad.

The stop is located on the busy, two-way Kristjanson Road, where on-street parking is also available.

For someone who doesn’t experience mobility issues, getting to the stop is as simple as stepping up what looks like a 10-inch curb, or walking about 100 feet across a grass lot from an accessible curb at the end of the block to the bus stop.

But for most of the residents of two of the group homes across the street, it’s impossible to get to the bus stop without help.

Bree Phillips, Matt Moody and Rhett Wallace in front of the transit stop across the street from their care home. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“Just stepping up that curb is just not a possibility for any of our people,” said Matt Moody, a support and recreation worker at one of the Eden Care Communities homes.

The care homes have their own parking lots, but the few available spaces aren’t enough for all of the staff members, plus the family or friends of residents who come to visit regularly. That means many end up parking on the street instead.

“When the bus does come, it does definitely get a bit tighter,” Moody explained.

“It’s not like there’s enough room for the bus to stop in the middle of the road and be able to put their ramp down and have a wheelchair come around. It would completely block the road.”

He said it’s not safe for the residents in the homes.

“All of our buses are supposed to be fully accessible. But with that ramp, it comes out at least three or four feet from the step of bus, so it needs to be quite a way from the sidewalk,” Moody added.

Complicating things further is the bare grass lot that surrounds the bus stop. While it takes effort to get manual or even power wheelchairs across it, Moody said it’s “kind of doable” in the summer, but during the winter months it’s far too uneven and slippery to attempt to navigate.

“Usually the sidewalks are kept in OK condition in the winter. They’re usable, but that grass space is impassable for anyone who can’t walk normally,” Moody said.

Bree Phillips, 40, has lived at one of the group homes for nearly five years. She’s been unable to walk since she had back surgery in 2016, and now gets around using a power chair.

She said she’d like to leave the group home more often on her own, but can’t do so without help getting to and from the bus stop.

“It’s hard for me, because I can’t get on the grass. It’s hard to drive on. I might get stuck. The grass gets in my tires,” she said.

Eden Care home residents (L-R) Russell Ouelette, Dirk Iron, Byron Horner, Lorie Heuchert, Bree Phillips, Matt Moody, Rhett Wallace pose in front of their Christmas tree. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

Rhett Wallace, 34, also lives at the home and speaks through a special keyboard. He agreed that using the public bus stop is nearly impossible in its current state.

“Back in 2019 we tried to use our bus stop across from our house,” Wallace said. “In summer it was inconvenient but doable to cross the stretch of grass.”

Moody said he’s written a few letters to the city, as have some of the residents. So far, they haven’t received a reply.

The most realistic option, he said, would be to have a sidewalk extension from the ramp on the corner of the street to the bus stop. The ideal option would be adding a ramp to the stop itself.

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“What would be the most usable for us would be to actually have a wheelchair ramp right near the bus (stop), closer to the middle of the block,” he said.

Moody said residents of the homes do use Access Transit when possible, but the rides need to be booked in advance, cancellations can result in demerits, and residents can’t do anything spontaneous like taking a shopping trip whenever they’d like.

The group homes have their own van for transportation, but with limited space and time available, many residents are keen to use public transit as often as possible.

“I’m pretty used to the world not being accessible, but it is annoying to have such an example right across the road,” said Wallace.