When there’s no one behind the wheel of the driver’s seat you’ve vacated, you’re stuck.
That’s the predicament many older Manitobans now face in small towns and rural areas with high senior populations and no form of public transportation. They rely on family or friends to take them for groceries, hairdresser and doctors’ appointments. Some hire user-pay services of volunteer driving programs offered through seniors’ groups, if they need to make a longer, out-of-town trip.
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A third option is the local Handi-van service, if one is available. Currently, 66 programs operate in separate municipalities across rural Manitoba. They do not function as a co-ordinated intra-community link.
So it is no wonder many continue to drive well past the point they should. Transportation options for rural seniors are basically ad hoc, say researchers and municipal leaders. And a hodgepodge of informal services dependent upon volunteer support isn’t likely to serve what will soon be a much larger number of older adults who no longer drive.
Manitoba’s 65-plus population is expected to jump from about 14 per cent to 43 per cent in the next 20 years. Many are rural.
Gina Sylvestre, a research associate at the University of Winnipeg’s Institute of Urban Studies, has extensively studied transportation issues, including the emerging needs of rural seniors.
MORE CO-ORDINATED SYSTEM NEEDED
As more of us age and decide to park our private vehicles, Sylvestre says we’ll start driving demand for better, more coordinated systems of transportation. All the housing, health-care and recreation programs together won’t meet seniors’ needs if there isn’t reliable physical access.
“Transportation is really at the root of providing for all the needs of seniors,” she said.
The Handi-van program is a good place to start making inroads, she says.
But Handi-van programs presently have only a patchwork of support from local government. A 2009 IUS survey of existing programs found many local governments contribute only minimally or not at all to it.
Forty per cent of all municipalities where Handi-van programs operate contribute nothing to the service, which means operating costs must be covered by grants from the province’s Mobility Disadvantaged Transportation Program and by user fees.
The survey was done for Transportation Options Network for Seniors (TONS), a community-based group trying to expand older adult transportation options.
There were a number of concerns raised in that survey, including low usage or “the van is just sitting.”
Yet the survey showed that the more municipal support a program receives, the more used and effective the service became, said Sylvestre.
Those programs receiving financial and in-kind support from local governments, generally operate more and longer hours, usually with paid drivers that offer greater continuity of service. The cost to ride the van is also lower where municipalities kick in – and correspondingly higher where they don’t.
“Our research shows any commitment of any kind definitely improves its operation.”
LACK OF CONTROL
Why are councils reluctant to back the Handi-van programs, especially when they have proportionately high senior populations and smaller communities are often promoted as good places to retire?
It’s partly due to lack of cash, says Beausejour Mayor Brad Saluk. But the problem is really lack of say over how these programs operate.
“It’s always hard to get money out of municipalities when all their money is tied up with what they’ve got to deal with on a day-to-day basis,” said Saluk.
“And a lot of municipalities don’t want to be putting money into something unless they have control over it.”
The province’s Mobility Disadvantaged Transportation Program’s policies and mandate currently restricts the way a lot of small centres wish to use their vans.
Beausejour, which, together with the R.M. of Brokenhead, subsidizes 25 per cent of their two-van program’s operating costs, is a case in point.
Beausejour started encouraging a wider ridership by encouraging people of all ages to ride it. It also began booking biweekly outings to Winnipeg to take vanloads of people shopping.
“It was just a matter of getting two, three or four more people to ride on it and word of mouth just took off,” he said, adding that they were very pleased with how this is adding to the quality of life for their community.
“We’re promoting safe travel. And (when the van travels to Winnipeg) we don’t have four or five vehicles going and we’re cutting down on greenhouse gas. We’re promoting a better community.”
Yet, even as they customize their Handi-van program to meet local needs, they are told by the province that this type of use contravenes user policies.
“We’ve run into some snags because the government is saying we’re not doing things the right way,” said Saluk.
Beausejour is challenging the province to revise the program so it can be tailored to local needs. Age-exclusive programs may work in larger centres. Smaller centres’ needs are different.
“We’re saying it’s time they revisit their mandate,” said Saluk.
Dubbed by colleagues as “Mr. Handi-van” for his advocacy of these programs, he also serves as chair of the TONS’ rural subcommittee, struck to help identify issues related to rural transport of older adults. This is where they hope to make some headway in pushing for changes to the Handi-van’s program mandate, said Saluk.
The TONS’ website has posted a “Tool Kit” to inform communities about how to plan for and improve Handi-van services, including places that want to boost the affordability and accessibility of the service, or pursue viable alternatives if a place is too small or isolated to support its own service.
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“Alotofmunicipalities don’twanttobe puttingmoneyinto somethingunlessthey havecontroloverit.”
– BEAUSEJOUR MAYOR BRAD SALUK
