{"id":889112,"date":"2026-09-09T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889112\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:46:11","slug":"transit-plus-user-says-new-pickup-location-leaves-her-feeling-unsafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889112\/","title":{"rendered":"Transit Plus user says new pickup location leaves her feeling unsafe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

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A Winnipeg woman who relies on Transit Plus says a construction project outside her home left her waiting for a ride that had been cancelled without notice, and forced her to use a new pickup location she says doesn’t feel safe.<\/p>\n

Trish Coyle, 67, lives on Sherbrook Street. Construction crews began building a new protected bike lane outside her building earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

She says Transit Plus had continued picking her up at the building after construction began, but that changed in late August.<\/p>\n

Coyle had planned to take a trip to Sherbrook Pool on Aug. 24. When the vehicle didn’t arrive, she called Transit Plus.<\/p>\n

“I was waiting there, and I got a text message saying that my ride would be there, to get ready to board. It didn’t show up,” Coyle said. “I phoned them. It’s been cancelled because of the construction.”<\/p>\n

She says she was frustrated because Transit Plus had picked her up at the location for weeks despite ongoing construction outside.<\/p>\n

Transit Plus offered alternative pickup locations, including 255 Sherbrook St. and a nearby McDonald’s.<\/p>\n

Coyle says the Sherbrook location didn’t work because the building is locked. She now uses the McDonald’s as a pickup site, which she says is preferable because she can wait inside and use the washroom.<\/p>\n

WATCH | ‘There’s a lot of drug use,’ Transit Plus user says of pickup spot area:\"\"<\/p>\n

Transit Plus user raises safety concerns over new pickup location<\/p>\n

Transit Plus user Trish Coyle says construction disrupted her service and left her with a new pickup location she considers unsafe. The City of Winnipeg says the change is necessary for safety.<\/p>\n

But getting to and from the new pickup location has raised safety concerns.<\/p>\n

Coyle says a man tried to hit her while she was returning from McDonald’s last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This area can be very bad. There’s a lot of drug use, a lot of unhappy people in this area \u2026 And most of them just mind their own business. But you get this one \u2014 I saw his fist balling up. It scares me,” she said.<\/p>\n

Coyle says she and her partner, Rh\u00e9al L’Heureux, use Transit Plus three or four times a week, including for medical appointments.<\/p>\n

“Why should I have to do it [go to another location]? It’s supposed to be door to door, and there’s nothing impeding the vehicles,” she said.<\/p>\n

Construction made original location unsafe: city<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Transit says when it cannot safely provide service at a customer’s regular pickup location, it finds an alternative location.<\/p>\n

An inspection at 279 Sherbrook St. in June found construction had paused and Transit Plus could safely provide service there, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

When construction resumed in late August, the location was deemed no longer safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transit says it considered alternatives and chose the McDonald’s site because it “provides a supervised indoor environment where the customer can wait until the scheduled pickup, at which point the driver can escort them directly to the vehicle.”<\/p>\n

The chair of the city’s public works committee says the change is an unfortunate consequence of adding the protected bike lane.<\/p>\n

“This sounds like it’s nowhere near as convenient as walking out your front door … But this is what happens in the changing, growing city,” Coun. Janice Lukes told CBC News in an interview.<\/p>\n

Lukes says her understanding is that the change is temporary and that a loading zone will return once construction is finished.<\/p>\n

Advocates say safety should be part of planning<\/p>\n

Patrick Stewart, a consultant with Winnipeg’s Independent Living Resource Centre, says the situation highlights the need for better co-ordination between construction projects, Transit Plus and the people who rely on the service.<\/p>\n

J\u00falia Valen\u00e7a Schoen, chair of the Manitoba League for Persons with Disabilities, says accessibility should be part of construction planning.<\/p>\n

“Construction doesn’t just happen overnight\u2026. It is planned for,” she said.<\/p>\n

Valen\u00e7a Schoen says there should be a conversation about maintaining essential services for people who rely on Transit Plus before construction begins, and that planning should consider safety.<\/p>\n

“The only person that really should have the ultimate say on whether this location is accessible and\/or safe should be the person using this,” she said.<\/p>\n

Coyle says she doesn’t trust that her original pickup location will be restored once construction is finished.<\/p>\n

“I just don’t trust them, if they can cancel when I’m waiting for a ride,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-889112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}