Portage la Prairie senior Betty Garnham depends on a motorized wheelchair to get around the city, but she says many sidewalks pose challenges that make her travels stressful and sometimes impossible. She points to sections along some streets as especially problematic, describing the raised sidewalk lips as nearly impossible for her chair to cross. Accessibility at businesses The difficulties extend beyond sidewalks. Garnham explains that vertical gaps from the road up onto the sidewalk and missing ramps at local businesses often determine where she can or cannot go. “I used to go to the Army and Navy, but now I quit going there because they have no ramp there,” she says. “But I go to the Legion now. They got a ramp. And they’ve got a gap like that where I can’t get this down at the Legion, too.” The sidewalk from Saskatchewan Avenue West up along 8th St NW has tree branches and bushes that block half of the sidewalk, causing her to have to drive up and over part of the grass in order to drive along. Some parts of the sidewalk down 8th St SW toward Crescent Lake are simply far too bumpy and broken up, causing her to have to drive on the side of the road instead. She notes it's been ages since that sidewalk was resurfaced properly. Forced to use a wheelchair Garnham adds that the lack of access sometimes forces her to switch to a manual wheelchair when she wants to visit certain places. “Yep, I have to take my other wheelchair,” she continues. Everyday limitations She says the design of sidewalks and entryways makes it clear that motorized scooters were not considered when infrastructure was put in place. “For motorized buggies, I guess, they just can’t get up over that hill, no,” Garnham says. Call to see the problem firsthand To show how difficult travel can be, Garnham invites others to accompany her along one of her usual routes. “You want to take a walk with me and see that,” she adds, “just by the lot to the west of the Eagles Fire Youth Centre. I can't get up on the sidewalk from the street at the lot, and have to drive around on the side of the road.” Ironically, one of the sidewalk access lips on the curb that her wheelchair cannot traverse is at the corner of the City Hall and Royal Road S.