Triple Vision
Welcome to Triple Vision, the podcast which recounts the past, present, and future of blindness in Canada, one story at a time. The Triple Vision podcasts began in September 2021 as a way of sharing the history of Canadians who are blind, deafblind, or partially sighted. From the point of view of those who have that lived experience. In our first year, we covered topics ranging from the history of the Canadian National Institute for the blind (CNIB), to colonialism, library services, eugenics, advocacy, education and employment. Recently our team has turned its attention to the theme “Danger of the Single Story” (starting with episode 27) where we explored what happens when others tell the story of a person, or community, when the story-teller is not part of that community.
The team consists of four intrepid individuals who have sight loss and who have lived much of the history that we tell: Charlyn Ayotte, David Best, Peter Field and Karoline Bourdeau. And of course, we acknowledge and remember John Rae (A K A The Penguin) who left us in 2022. His guidance and commitment to the Pandora Project Are missed.
We are always looking for stories to share so if you have a story about blind Canadians which you think should be told, please reach out to us at info@triplevision.team
The intent of this website and Triple Vision podcast is to recount the past, present, and future of blindness in Canada. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the Triple Vision Team, nor its suppliers, partners or sponsors. The material and information presented here is for entertainment and general information purposes only. Triple Vision appreciates that there is a diversity of views to be shared on the topics we cover, and we embrace this diversity.
Podcast Blog
Skip to the Podcast IndexYou Want to be Safe on Your Island? Maybe Not with Floating Bus Stops
In this month’s podcast we turn to two experts in the area of accessible transportation to talk about “floating” or “island” bus stops. Richard Marion is our guest host who is an advocate in accessible transportation, and our guest is Linda Bartram who is the First vice President of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, and a member of the accessibility advisory committee for the City of Victoria.
Maybe you are like me and the image of floating bus stops provokes some kind of comical image of a floating bus stop in a river somewhere kind of like “Islands in the Stream”? But enough of bad music recorded by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parten! Floating or island bus stops are actually a fairly serious transportation barrier to many pedestrians, including persons who are blind, deafblind, or have partial sight. They are the advent of the increased proliferation of bike lanes. They occur when a bus rider crosses a sometimes uncontrolled bike lane to get to a bus stop which is located between the bike lane and the lanes of traffic on a city street. I am a strong supporter of bike lanes, as bikes and scooters, etc. offer a green, and often efficient, answer to car congestion, but when you stick a bus stop between bikes and cars pedestrians may be put at risk.
When I worked in downtown Ottawa and got dropped off in front of my building by a car or taxi, I would have to cross a bike lane in order to get to the sidewalk. Without some kind of support in the form of the car or taxi driver letting me know it was safe to cross the bike lane, it was a potentially dangerous situation. Bike lanes are built to give bike riders the right of way so that they don’t have to compete for space with cars. As a result, I can only assume that cyclists believe that pedestrians, if they need to cross a bike lane to get to a bus or climb into a taxi, will see them and will not cross until its safe. A dangerous assumption.
Our podcast this month highlights the classic situation of what happens when universal design principles are not taken into account. Sometimes city planners, such as in the case of Victoria, consult with the individuals who may be impacted by an infrastructure change – in this case cyclists, perhaps the driving community maybe taxis and the local bus company. But Linda Bartram tells us that, at least in the beginning, the city didn’t even hold a proper consultation with its own accessibility advisory committee before installing the first island bus stops. The situation even got to the point where a member of the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB) took the issue to the BC Human Rights Tribunal where its Chair ruled in favour of the complainant. While this should be perceived as a “win” for the community, the Chair went so far as to order a remedy which included changes to the infrastructure to make travel to the floating bus stop safer, again without consultation with the community itself. As a result, a solution was imposed on the community, one which it believes is not safe enough.
In our podcast, Linda goes on to say that Victoria is now much more open to adding new bus stops which do not “float” between car lanes and bike lanes. In some cases the Victoria bus will pull right into the sidewalk requiring bike riders to be aware of their environment. Somewhere, or maybe some time, there will be a world where the needs of everyone are taken into account, and infrastructure is built to this kind of standard. In Victoria this might actually be happening, but our podcast provides a number of other examples including the BC cities of Vancouver and Kelowna where it is not. There is, of yet, no standard which city planners can point to as safe infrastructure to accommodate pedestrians, bike riders and bus travelers. I am sure this will come, but it will probably take hours of advocacy, just like always.
Author: Peter Field