A human rights tribunal hearing started Monday to determine whether the City of Victoria and sa国际传媒 Transit have discriminated against blind pedestrians by moving some bus stops away from the curb to accommodate bike lanes.
The human rights complaint claims the city and transit agency are discriminating against people with impaired vision because five bus stops on Pandora between Cook and Store streets were moved from the curb to an island that is separated from the sidewalk by a two-way protected bike lane. Pedestrians have to cross the bike lanes to reach the 鈥渇loating鈥� transit stops.
While the city is responsible for the street鈥檚 design, the complaint argues sa国际传媒 Transit is failing to provide safe public bus service to people who are blind, because it doesn鈥檛 provide assistance to safely cross the bike lanes.
Oriano Belusic, who is named as a complainant on behalf of the Canadian Federation of the Blind, likened crossing the bike lanes to 鈥減laying Russian roulette.鈥�
He said he鈥檚 had a close call with a cyclist and knows of many more, including incidents in which blind pedestrians鈥� canes have been 鈥渕angled鈥� by bikes.
鈥淏lind people have no way of safely crossing the bike lane. They don鈥檛 know when the bikes are coming. They can鈥檛 tell when bikes are coming,鈥� he said.
The city maintains that the Pandora Avenue bike lanes, which were installed in 2017, 鈥渕eet or exceed all applicable design standards and are consistent with best practices for these types of installations around the world,鈥� said spokesman Bill Eisenhauer.
鈥淩oad design involves balancing many competing interests to minimize risks to all users. The city is committed to safety and continuous improvement of all our infrastructure. We are always willing to look at the safety of our streets and to take steps to make changes where necessary and appropriate.鈥�
A sa国际传媒 Transit spokesperson said by email the agency is aware of the complaint and is co-operating with the proceedings, but cannot comment on the active human rights complaint process.
Both sa国际传媒 Transit and the City of Victoria applied to have the complaint dismissed.
The tribunal in May denied an application by sa国际传媒 Transit to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that it had no chance of succeeding.
At issue, tribunal member Norman Trerise wrote in the decision, is 鈥渨hether the Class has experienced an adverse impact from Transit鈥檚 service of the Floating Stops.鈥�
He noted that there is a marked crosswalk for pedestrians to cross the bike lanes, and the majority of cyclists slow down significantly for people waiting to cross. However, he wrote, videos show 鈥渁 substantial minority鈥� of cyclists do not slow down enough before the crosswalk in order to stop for someone to cross.
鈥淚t seems unlikely that [a blind person] could reliably determine when it is safe to step into the crosswalk as a cyclist approaches 鈥� assuming that they would even know that a cyclist was approaching,鈥� Trerise wrote.
He said the situation effectively prevents access to the bus stops for people who are visually impaired.
鈥淎s a result, they are denied bus service along the relevant length of Pandora Street.鈥�
In July, the city attempted to have the complaint dismissed based on Belusic鈥檚 refusal of what it called a reasonable settlement offer that detailed its intention to make the crossing safer by adding flashing lights, a pedestrian push button and a flexible post between bike lanes at the crosswalk to slow down cyclists.
Trerise found that the settlement did not meet the tribunal鈥檚 requirements because it didn鈥檛 include monetary compensation. In denying the application, he wrote the issues raised in the complaint 鈥渁re, in my view, important to society as a whole.鈥�
The hearing is scheduled to take place over three weeks from now to Aug. 28.