Today, TransLink emailed out a summary of the “Stakeholder Review” they did on HandyDART service. We have not had time to go through it in detail yet, but there are some interesting points:
The report states that “the number of people over the age of 70 in Metro Vancouver is expected to increase by approximately 55% over the next 10 years.” A 55% increase in people over 70 will greatly increase the need for HandyDART service.
At the workshops that led to this report report, participants were asked lots of questions. But we were not asked one of the most crucial ones – Should HandyDART be brought in-house? Of course people brought this issue up on their own. The report notes the following comments:
“• In house service needed.
• Bring service in-house rather than contract out.
• The service is too dependent on taxis.
• For-profit model reduces the budget to improve service.” (see page 18)
More on this later, once we have had a chance to read the report more carefully!