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Ask any person with a disability about the main challenges to living their life and almost all will talk about transportation (and, of course, housing). In Toronto, we have WheelTrans, the parallel transit system for people with disabilities, some accessible regular buses, some accessible subway stations, and now, new and accessible street cars.

I have relied on WheelTrans, the Toronto’s parallel transit system for people with disabilities, since I came to the city in 1982. I should start by saying that I am of course grateful that it exists. But it is also an extremely frustrating experience.

When you have to book your ride a week in advance, frequently wait for 30-45 minutes for your ride, and take a circuitous route home while you pick up and drop off other passengers… A quick shopping trip or meeting often becomes a half-day exercise in exhaustion. I tend to rely on a private accessible transportation service, which is expensive, but arrives on time and is a direct trip. That’s valuable when your pain levels are aggravated by rumbling around in a vehicle.

My pain levels and the vagaries of Canadian winter prevent me from taking advantage of buses and subways, but those new streetcars have changed my life.

There are many and sundry problems with the full delivery of the streetcars and the implementation of them has been limited to a couple of streets and routes fairly close to me. So The Boy and I have been taking advantage of them. Which has seriously reduced our transportation budget.

The streetcars are not by any means perfect the accessible. The blue button on the door that you should press if you want the ramp put out is quite high up and by the time you line up next to it, the streetcar’s leaving again. The ramp… Let me talk about the ramp. It’s steep. It’s not a problem going up it if you are in a power wheelchair, but I wouldn’t want to think about doing that in a manual chair. And going down as you exit the streetcar is an exercise in courage. For a long time, I would back down, with The Boy pretending to guide me. Recently, I tried it the other way, because eventually, I’d be tempted to go out  on my own.

Every time, I have to take a deep breath. Dear TTC: would it kill you to make that ramp just three inches longer?

But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the freedom the streetcars have given me. For the cost of a standard fare, we can hop on a streetcar and head out on the town. It has vastly increased my range and the possibility of adventure.

This past weekend, plans to see show jumping at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair were cancelled due to several people succumbing to germs. Plan B of wandering around the Fair in the afternoon with another friend got cancelled due to friend’s chronic illness flaring.

So I resigned myself to not going this year. Then, I decided to go myself. Spontaneously. And within 10 minutes of that decision, I was on my way to the streetcar.

I did not have to make that decision seven days in advance. I did not have to pay $35 for the trip (both ways).

It was completely spontaneous and it cost $3 each way.

Unless you have spent a significant amount of time being completely dependent on parallel transit or expensive alternatives, you have no idea what it means to be able to be spontaneous and cheaply to boot.

When you have a disability, so much of your life is planned out to the minute. You have to consider everything, all scenarios, assess possible timing between different aspects of your life, and basically, you need an advanced degree in scheduling and project planning.

You get used to it. So much so, that you don’t notice it anymore.

And then your city buys new streetcars and you get a taste of what it’s like to be “normal.”

Thank you, Toronto!