Accessibility at Portage and Main

One out of every six Manitobans face challenges with accessibility. The Accessibility for Manitobans Act calls on all of us to identify, remove, and prevent barriers that make services and places inaccessible to some. Public sector organizations, such as schools, universities, and municipalities including the City of Winnipeg are called upon to be leaders in improving accessibility.
It's time for the City of Winnipeg to address one glaring accessibility issue: Portage & Main. They have been hesitant to lead, and are now asking citizens to decide to *literally* bring down the barriers. The intersection requires major work—work that will either reinforce the barriers or open the intersection to all the people who need to cross it, no matter their way of moving.

The closure of Portage and Main, quite simply, could not be justified now if it were proposed as it violates The Accessibility for Manitobans Act. Instead, we would recognize it for what it is: poor city design creating a significant barrier to the movement of people, especially those who require the use of elevators to avoid stairs. The average time it takes wheelchair users to cross the street via the underground is 9 minutes – and that is if the elevators are working when people need them and they know how to navigate the underground maze. Or, if avoiding the elevators, the status quo demands people walk an extra 400m. That distance or those delays might not sound like much more than a minor inconvenience to those of us who are able to walk with ease, but the inaccessibility problem is an added burden on the lives of fellow Winnipeggers who already deal with accessibility barriers every day. The positive impact of opening this intersection to pedestrians is significant. For drivers, the impact is minimal.

Whatever your opinion about the other reasons to open up the intersection to pedestrians, we believe the issue of accessibility surpasses them all.

We work in health care, as professors in health care professions programs, administrators, researchers, and health professionals delivering direct care. We have each learned to appreciate how the physical environment excludes some people – learning to appreciate what has never created problems for us, but does for others.

It is high time to reverse a poor design decision of the past. Let's address this physical barrier in our city, and free the City of Winnipeg from this significant accessibility barrier. The City has hesitated to lead, so let the citizens of Winnipeg lead by voting yes to the opening of the intersection and granting accessibility to those who live with mobility issues now and may in the future.
Let's use Winnipeg's municipal election to vote for a Winnipeg that:
• Promote accessibility in all public spaces,
• Does not sacrifice the movement of some citizens, and
• Does not prioritize one kind of movement over others.

Vote yes to opening Portage and Main. Tell others why you are doing so and why accessibility matters. Democracy does not end with an election, so after election day, speak to your elected representatives about why accessibility matters.