Blind B.C. woman files discrimination complaint over city roundabouts, bike lanes | 24CA News

Maria Kovacs will not danger ready for the bus close to her church on her personal anymore. The final time she tried it, a bicycle owner hit her.

“When I got out of the bus, the bike hit me in the back,” she informed 24CA News. “This [area] is very unsafe for someone who is blind.”

Kovacs has been blind for greater than 30 years. Historically, she’s been in a position to get round independently in her group in Maple Ridge. But lately, she says infrastructure developments, together with bike lanes, have made it more and more harmful for her to exit alone.

She’s filed a human rights grievance in opposition to town, alleging three areas she frequents are now not safely accessible as a consequence of infrastructure upgrades, amounting to discrimination on the idea of incapacity.

In explicit, a motorcycle lane that merges into the sidewalk was put in on the bus cease close to her church, financial institution, and grocery retailer. She says the shortage of any bodily markers makes it unattainable to know if she’s strolling into the bike lane, placing her in danger.

“This area has robbed my independence,” she mentioned, standing beside the bus cease together with her walker. “Now, in order to come here, I come with a person. I cannot walk alone by myself with my dog to church on a Sunday.”

Kovacs has additionally sounded the alarm over two roundabouts put in since 2010, one among which has a street-level sidewalk that’s solely separated by a white line. The different has crosswalks with no lights that she’s unable to navigate. She says she may cross each intersections independently earlier than they had been put in.

“Once upon a time, I used to be able to come here and read a book if I wanted to, and I didn’t really need to have anybody,” she mentioned, standing close to the intersection by Maple Ridge Park. “But since the roundabouts came here, it’s impossible to do

City denies discrimination

Kovacs filed the complaint in 2018. In its response, the city denied that the areas are unsafe for the blind, arguing that “bus stops are designed in accordance with TransLink tips … to satisfy the wants of individuals with disabilities, together with people who find themselves visually impaired,” according to tribunal documents.

Signs urging cyclists to dismount have been installed at the stop in question.

The City also says its roundabouts are designed in accordance with Transportation Association of Canada standards and provide reasonable accommodation for people who are blind.

24CA News reached out to the City of Maple Ridge for comment. It declined, given the matter is before the tribunal.

Legal precedent

Andrew Robb, managing lawyer of the Disability Law Clinic at Disability Alliance B.C., is representing Kovacs in her complaint and suggests the decision could be precedent-setting.

If the tribunal rules in her favour, he says, it could order the city to make costly changes to the areas deemed inaccessible.

“Cities who discriminate in opposition to individuals with disabilities must be handled the identical as anybody else who discriminates,” he said. “That is, they need to be pressured to cease the discrimination and take steps to ensure it does not occur once more.”

Robb says infrastructure challenges for B.C.’s disabled community are widespread across the province but points to recent legislation that could prevent more cases like Kovacs’s from emerging in the future.

In 2021, the province passed the Accessible B.C. Act, providing a framework to identify, remove and prevent barriers to accessibility.

Under the law, the government needs to create an accessibility plan which will be updated every three years.

“If that regulation is efficient, it should be really transformative as a result of it should require cities like Maple Ridge, together with many authorities businesses, to be proactive, to take steps on their very own initiative to forestall the sort of drawback from occurring,” mentioned Robb.

Kovacs and the City of Maple Ridge are anticipated to make their closing arguments at a listening to on Jan. 24. Robb says it is going to doubtless take a number of months earlier than the tribunal releases its choice.