The Vancouver Park Board and City of Vancouver are holding a virtual workshop for transportation, mobility and accessibility-focused organizations and champions to learn more about how the West End waterfront could be shaped to meet the needs and aspirations of people experiencing barriers traveling to and within the area. The Imagine West End Waterfront virtual workshop for making the area more accessible will take place May 24th from 10AM to 11.30AM.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP to the Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/imagine-west-end-waterfront-virtual-workshop-for-accessibility-and-mobility-tickets-634209958057

• The workshop will be on Zoom and you’ll receive the Zoom link in your Eventbrite RSVP confirmation email.
• All participants will receive a living wage honorarium in recognition of their time.

We have received the following information from the City of Vancouver:

Join us for an in-person conversation where you can share your unique experiences to help inform Vancouver’s Accessibility Strategy.

The City is offering two facilitated discussions on Friday, June 2, 2023, from 3:30 – 7 pm at Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, and on Friday, June 16, 2023, from 12:30 – 4 pm at Creekside Community Centre.

To attend, contact Karen.Lai@vancouver.ca to sign up. If you need assistance covering expenses to attend, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you and working together to create solutions that work for everyone!

A new report called “Access for Everyone? Publicly Operated HandyDART” was released last week. It shows TransLink’s HandyDART contractor is failing to meet the demand for HandyDART services. The report found that in 2022 TransLink provided just half the HandyDART service per senior as it had in 2008. Read the press release and full report here: https://ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Access-for-Everyone-media-release-2023-05-02.pdf

DABC is endorsing the report. Along with unions, climate, and seniors groups, we call on TransLink to bring HandyDART in house and operate the service directly, instead of contracting it out to private businesses. We believe this will improve services.

The Vancouver and District Labour Council is seeking speakers with experience using HandyDART who are willing to speak at an upcoming mayors’ meeting, in support of Translink providing HandyDART services directly. Please contact DABC if you want to speak at the mayors’ meeting, or you can register here: https://www.translink.ca/about-us/about-translink/mayors-council-on-regional-transportation#speaking-at-mayors-council-meetings.