Titanic Toronto Tourism Ground Transportation Perfect Storm

What if a FIFA tourist needs a WAV?

This week I spoke with a Government Relations professional who dismissed my questions about Ontario’s current plan to take over regulation of Uber, Lyft and other app-based firms province-wide.

“Doug Ford has bigger things to worry about than ground transportation, like the World Cup,” the specialist assured me.

“Did you SEE any of the Toronto World Series coverage?” I spluttered, recalling the thousands of angry fans stranded on the subway platform at 2am; the immobilized snarl of Vehicles for Hire (VFH) outside the stadium; and the poor Beck Taxi driver who got mobbed and punched in the face.

To add to the excitement of Toronto’s first-ever World Cup will be the epic failure of Toronto’s on-demand Accessible Vehicles for Hire program. Proportionately few of the Taxi orders in Toronto are for Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs), but the clients who rely on them really need them.

One of my most reliable anonymous sources called me this week to share the number of panic-stricken phone calls he is getting from hospitals, schools and families which used to rely on Beck Taxi’s WAVs before 99 per cent of them aged out of the system on March 31st.

“It’s like the Titanic going down over here; people are freaking,” he sighed. “It’s not like (Beck Taxi’s) Kristine Hubbard didn’t spend months screaming the warnings, she did. Taxi News has been writing about this for years. But here we are, getting surprised calls from frantic clients who need to send someone somewhere, and they are shocked when we have to tell them it can’t be today.”

No one should hold out any hope that the situation will improve if in fact Ontario does take over responsibility for on-demand Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles. Despite the fact that its own Accessibility for Ontarian’s with Disabilities Act plainly states “This Act applies to every person or organization in the public and private sectors of the Province of Ontario, including the Legislative Assembly of Ontario,” Ontario’s pilot summary for rideshare vehicles note only that “PTCs with more than 500 vehicles may be required to provide accessible transportation.”

Perhaps Toronto might be damned with faint praise by noting that at least, it’s trying harder than Ontario is.

Volunteer and owner/operator Behrouz Khamseh has been attending FIFA planning meetings for months on behalf of the Taxi industry. He is trying to explain to planners that while Taxis line up first-come, first-serve at a stand or corral, Ubers are summoned on a random basis according to a mysterious process involving the time the order is placed and the driver that will accept the ride for least amount of money. This means that there will be a lot of confused VFH drivers circling the stadiums at let-out.

Here is my version of a Titanic Toronto Tourism Ground Transportation Perfect Storm: imagine a dignitary, a member of FIPFA (Federation Internationale de Powerchair Football Association) is attending in Toronto gets a surprise change of location at the last minute and requires a Wheelchair Accessible Van. Let’s call the person Pat.

Pat calls a Taxi company or asks their concierge to order a Wheelchair Accessible Taxi to get to the event.

The Taxi company informs Pat there are no WAVs available, but suggests other companies Pat could call. After an hour of calling around and after complaining to FIFA organizers, somebody somewhere locates a WAV that can be sent.

The WAV sits in traffic behind thousands of circling Ubers for untold amounts of time.

Pat misses the event and complains to international media about it.

Toronto’s tourism industry takes one of the biggest hits since Doug Ford called the Metro Toronto Convention Centre “one of the worst convention centres in the world.”

Ironically, as on-demand Wheelchair Accessible Van service has collapsed in Toronto, city staff in Ottawa are filing a report for the Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committee on April 16 which will note at 42 per cent increase in Accessible trips and a 71 per cent increase in capacity.

So, Ottawa proves that it can be done. Toronto demonstrates that it does not know how.

Ontario shows it does not care.