Burnaby Mountain is inaccessible, and that has to change

By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer

Getting to the Burnaby campus is a pain in the ass; there I said it! The commute to the Burnaby campus has often been the topic of conversation among SFU students. Most of us have either expressed our frustration or heard someone express their frustration with the dreaded commute. The Burnaby campus’ location, with its poor connectivity to the rest of the transit network, makes it difficult for all students to access, but perhaps, we don’t know the half of it. For SFU’s disabled community, their ability to get to campus is only one aspect of university life that is impacted. Indeed, it is only one of many examples of how, at this university, numerous services are stuck behind barriers, with little explanation on how to break through them. For example, the university has yet to implement regular recording of all lectures to make classes more accessible — even though there has been a demand, by the students, to do so. At its core, SFU’s Burnaby campus remains inaccessible, both in terms of how to get to it and how it is navigated. As such, we must collectively push the university to enact policies that actually xmake campus an easier place to get to and thrive in.

The commute to campus is worsened by the fact that the community has limited options. Burnaby Mountain is served by only four bus routes: the R5, 143, 144, and 145. This clearly is not enough routes for a university of nearly 40,000 students, not counting the many thousands of staff, faculty, and residents who call the mountain their workplace or home. For students with accessibility needs, having limited, crowded, and infrequent public transit options limits their chances of getting to campus — and in other cases makes their path to campus more painful. This often forces them to seek alternative methods of transport, but in the case of the Burnaby campus, that will not help them much.

This is because there are not many alternatives to access the mountain. Those who use motor vehicles face a constricted road infrastructure. The roads coming up from Gaglardi Way and Burnaby Mountain Parkway funnel into a single interchange, which has seen countless traffic incidents. Once on the mountain, finding a parking spot is often difficult. This is compounded by how expensive it is to park once you do get a spot. If someone experiences mobility or other health issues, the stress of spending more time finding a parking spot, along with the walk to class, will further complicate their day.

Alternative public transit solutions, such as the Burnaby Mountain Gondola, have been stuck behind public consultation and red tape for years, which have put the project on an uncertain timeline. These circumstances, arguably, place people with accessibility needs in limbo as they face limited and crowded conditions to try to get to the mountain.

We have all been in the position on campus where we scramble to find a way to get home when snow falls on the Burnaby campus. Because when it does hit, the whole campus shuts down, and so does transit. Some students may even contemplate walking down the mountain to try and escape, but for those with accessibility issues that option is not on the table.

Furthermore, even if people with accessibility needs manage to come up and down Burnaby Mountain, they may still face issues on campus. The snow hampers the ability to get across the campus, but this is not limited to the snow season, it is also seen throughout the school year. As is the case with construction in general, the changes around the physical layout of the campus would add more issues. People with accessibility needs have to face increasingly ageing campus infrastructure, such as broken elevators, and automated doors that are often malfunctioning for months at a time. Infrastructure obstacles often force people into difficult situations, where they have to brave up stairs or other difficult physical obstacles to move around campus. But why should they? Everyone deserves the ability to move freely around SFU’s campus with their accessibility needs met.

It is clear that if SFU wants to meet its commitments to students with disabilities, it must take steps to make Burnaby Mountain more accessible. Some steps the university could do is to lobby harder for alternative transit options like the Burnaby Gondola to be actually built. As well as provide more frequent and far reaching accessibility shuttles, to make it easier for people to move through the campus — as has been adopted by other universities.

The university should always strive to be a space where students do not always have to worry about the circumstances that hinder their learning and keep them from being active members of the SFU community.