{"id":138,"date":"2014-12-11T04:15:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T04:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/?p=138"},"modified":"2015-01-14T19:09:30","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T19:09:30","slug":"media-release-transit-referendum-win-would-release-handydart-riders-from-house-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"Media Release: Transit referendum win would release HandyDART riders from house arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MEDIA RELEASE<br \/>\nTransit referendum win would release HandyDART riders from house arrest<br \/>\nFor immediate release \u2013 Thursday December 11, 2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mayors have proposed a substantial and ongoing increase in HandyDART service\u201d says HandyDART Riders\u2019 Alliance spokesperson and former Vancouver City Councillor Tim Louis. \u201cIt is a step towards releasing people with disabilities from the virtual house arrest the service freeze has created.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Mayors-Vision-Cover-Wide.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-134\" src=\"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Mayors-Vision-Cover-Wide-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"Mayors Vision Cover Wide\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Mayors-Vision-Cover-Wide-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Mayors-Vision-Cover-Wide.jpg 552w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Mayors Council proposal is for a 30% increase in HandyDART service hours over 10 years, averaging about 2.7% per year.<\/p>\n<p>When elected mayors and councillors sat on the TransLink Board, they increased HandyDART service hours by about 5% per year. But after the provincial government imposed an appointed board in 2008, HandyDART service hours were frozen and HandyDART trip denials soared.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Previous freedom of information requests show that people with disabilities and seniors were denied HandyDART service over 42,000 times in 2013, an eight-fold increase in four years. There were 5,075 HandyDART denials in 2009 and 42,418 in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the mayors are proposing is enough for us to step up and campaign for the yes side, although we really need more considering the increasing number of older seniors\u201d says HandyDART Riders\u2019 Alliance spokesperson Beth McKellar.<\/p>\n<p>HandyDART is a door-to-door transit service for people with disabilities and older seniors who cannot use the regular transit system for at least some trips.<\/p>\n<p>-30-<br \/>\nBackgrounder available at<a href=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/HRA-Backgrounder-Transit-Referendum-HandyDART-Dec-10-2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/HRA-Backgrounder-Transit-Referendum-HandyDART-Dec-10-2014.pdf<\/a><br \/>\nFor more information please contact:<br \/>\nElizabeth McKellar HandyDART Riders\u2019 Alliance Co-coordinator 604 444 9289<br \/>\nTim Louis, HandyDART Riders\u2019 Alliance Co-coordinator 604 732 7678 or 604 738 0405<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEDIA RELEASE Transit referendum win would release HandyDART riders from house arrest For immediate release \u2013 Thursday December 11, 2014 \u201cThe mayors have proposed a substantial and ongoing increase in HandyDART service\u201d says HandyDART Riders\u2019 Alliance spokesperson and former Vancouver &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/?p=138\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handydartriders.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}