Traveling At Home With Disability – Wheel Trans

There are a lot of people who take travelling around their hometown for granted. I was one of those people. If I needed to go somewhere I could jump in my car and drive, but not everyone has that luxury. I believe public transit needs to be accessible for everyone. Every city has its own way of dealing with the problem of moving people around a city. 

I know it’s pretty standard to complain about transportation within a city. In toronto we have several options to get around:  Driving, TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), car ride sharing (uber, lyft, taxis), bike share, and walking around. For people without disabilities getting around can still be stressful between the costs and traffic. For people with certain disabilities these options aren’t just stressful they can be impossible. For example if you are blind driving is not going to be an option.

Which is why having affordable and accessible transit options should be an integral part of a cities infrastructure. In Toronto we have the TTC. In terms of cost it is usually cheaper than driving a car or taking a cab, but in terms of accessibility it has a long way to go. Many street cars have large steps to get on and off, many subway stations have stairs which presents a huge obstacles for those with wheelchairs or walking impairments from using those services. Those with mental or visual disabilities can easily get lost or confused when underground. 

What Is Wheel Trans?

Wheel Trans is a service that TTC offers to help make transit more accessible. Basically for the price of a regular TTC ticket, you can call the TTC and they will organize transportation from your location to wherever you need to go. The TTC will arrange for accessible buses, contracted accessible taxi minivans and sedan taxis from your home to anywhere in Toronto and back. 

How Book a Trip: 

Trips can be broken down into Regular or Occasional trips. Occasional trips are trips that happen once, they can be a one way trip, round trip or even a trip with multiple stops. These trips need to be booked at least 4 hours in advance. The difference between an occasional and a regular trip is that regular trips are recurring and need to be booked a minimum of 8 days before hand. 

To book a trip you can either call in, email or use the online booking tool. It is also recommended to take a “Travel Training Program”. It is free 1:1 training session where someone helps to plan your trips that meet your accessibility needs. 

Day Of Trip: 

You will need two things on the day of the trip, ID and payment. ID can be your drivers licence or your Ontario ID card. Payment can be in the form of TTC tokens, TTC tickets, Cash (must be exact change), or Presto (please note that the taxis cab do not take Presto cards as of right now, but the TTC is currently working on it.) 

You will need to wait for your ride either in the lobby or main entrance of the building. If it’s a house wait by the front door. For public places like malls or hospitals, drivers will come into the main lobby and call for you by name. 

Adjacent Regions: 

Wheel Trans service was designed not only to help individuals travel within Toronto but to connect with other services outside of Toronto. Wheel Trans will transport you upto 1 km into the adjacent regions of Peel, Durham and York. Each of those regions has their own version of Wheels trans to assist you getting around.  

Wheel Trans Info:

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