Blind New Brunswickers hopeful legislature bill offering free transit fares gets passed
CBC
Rita Meehan loves to walk.
She's good with children and worked at Saint John's first south-end daycare. She volunteers, has sat with the dying, and has done Run for the Cure, which raises money for the fight against breast cancer. Being born blind in her right eye didn't stop Meehan from doing those things.
But something that's enabled Meehan, along with many other blind and partly blind New Brunswickers, to be active members of their communities, is the transit system.
Unable to legally drive in the province, they depend on buses to go to appointments, get to work, meet friends, shop and volunteer.
They also face significant challenges finding employment, and many live in poverty.
That's why We Are Passengers, a New Brunswick advocacy group for people who are blind, along with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, is advocating for what they're calling an affirmative action bill, which is being introduced by PC MLA Greg Turner.
If passed, the private member's bill would offer free free transit fares for people who are blind and partly blind in Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton and Miramichi.
Now 73, Meehan said while others may have the patience to stay home, she doesn't, and loves to go out and be among people.
"I would go out a lot more, if it didn't cost me as much," she said.
Linda Nickerson, volunteer executive director of Saint John's Seniors' Resource Centre, said she believes free bus passes for people who are blind and partly blind would make them go out more.
"A free bus pass would mean that people would be more active in their life. They would be more apt to…volunteer, to go to medical appointments," she said.
She's worked in cities like Toronto and Halifax where she's used transit, and called it a great help.
Abby Bourque-Coyle lives in Dieppe in the Moncton area. She said it's great Moncton offers free transit to people like herself, but she said it's needed across the province.
"This is a means of transportation that blind people, they count on this," she said. "They count on it to go to work, to go to school, to go to doctor's appointments. You know, go to activities, get groceries, bring your kids to appointments or activities.
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