FOUR SECOND-year BCIT Administrative Management
Technology students are helping the North Shore United
Way custom transit advisory committee determine the real
need for HandyDART transportation service on the North

Shore.

Laura Lee, Lorraine Soo, Roger
Rooyakkers and Jim Foglictta
have developed a user survey
which they plan to distribute this
week to North Shore rec centres,
group homes, Lions Gate Hospital
and other facilities used by Han-
dyDART users.

On Tuesday, 1,200 of the ques-
tionnaires were distributed to the
clients of homemakers working

Varvarikos said part of the
problem for those who have
given up trying to use the
service lies in the
EandyDART practice of
rating transit runs such as
trips for community
recreation as low priority.

with the North Shore Home Sup-
port Services Society.

Said Lee: ‘‘We'll be collecting
data over the next month. The
main problem is trying to find the
shut-ins.”’

According to Susan Varvarikos,
a planner with the North Shore
United Way, information col-
lected on the survey will be used in
a report identifying unmet com-
munity needs and will be forward-
ed to BC Transit.

‘‘We want to identify the unmet
need in the community for the ser-
vice,’ Varvarikos said. She said
the budget allocated for the local
HandyDART service is based on a
community need as perceived by
BC Transit. ‘‘The problem is that
over the years many people have
stopped using HandyDART
because it just wasn’t available.
The numbers used don’t reflect the
real need.’’

MICHAE ER

News Reparter

Varvarikos said part of the pro-
biem for those who have given up
trying to use the service lics in the
HandyDART practice of rating
transit runs such as trips for com-
munity recreation as low priority.
“Preventative recreation is not
seen to be a priority by B.C. Tran-
sit,” she said. Runs for medical,
work and educational purposes are
given first consideration for the
service.

Duart McLean is the North
Shore manager of the Han-
dyDART service, which is con-
tracted out to him by B.C. Transit.

Nine buses are deployed on the
North Shore. The bulk are
wheelchair accessible with three
vehicles for ambulatory-disabled
users only.

The wheelchair accessible buses
carry a maximum of four
wheelchairs and three or four seats
for ambulatory disatled users. The
service, running since May I, 1981,
is available from Deep Cove to
Horseshoe Bay.

“The service is for the physically
handicapped and others who can’t
make use of the mass transit
system,"’ McLean said.

The local HandyDART system
averages 700 users a month. Last
month the nine buses made 2,500
trips and often make as many as
3,000 trips per month.

McLean said the bulk of the
trips are made on the North Shore
with trips to Vancouver taken in
the morning. Users pay $1.25 per
trip and must book at feast a day
ahead for service.

But demand has always exceeded
the resources available. Said

35 - Sunday, March 13, 1988 - North Shore News

RRR OTTO.

Clerk
embarrasses
client

PAGE 36

NEWS photo Mike Wekotleld

FOUR BCIT students are coordinating a survey of North Shore users of the HandyDART transit system. The
survey is being conducted for the North Shore United Way. The organization will be presenting the infermation
to BC Transit to show the present need for the local service.

McLean: ‘The situation has gone
on for so Jong, we've got used to
it.’”

McLean would like to see the
money for another two
wheelchair-accessible vehicles
available to mect current demands
on the system.

He works with an annual budget
just under $500,000 to provide
seven-day service, 8 a.m. to 8 or 9
p.m.

Said McLean: ‘‘We don’t feel
there’s much hope for extra buses
this year. We’ve got our fingers
crossed but we've been disap-
pointed in the past and we feel a
little out in the cold.” :

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