What the handyDART application is for
handyDART is BC Transit’s shared-ride, door-to-door service for people whose physical or cognitive disability, permanent or temporary, stops them from using accessible fixed-route transit some or all of the time. Eligibility rests on functional ability to use the bus, not on diagnosis, age or mobility device. After the application arrives, a mobility specialist clinic contacts the applicant within ten working days to book an assessment, and the outcome is mailed within three working days. It is a BC Transit program outside Metro Vancouver. TransLink’s HandyDART in Metro Vancouver uses a different application.
Who completes it
The applicant, or their legal representative, completes the H1 application: contact details, pickup location and access, PWD status, a secondary contact, mobility and travel needs, attendant needs, mobility aids, travel training, a medical contact, and the signed authorization. A qualified practitioner who knows the applicant’s mobility can complete the optional H4 at the back of the package.
Usually the patient brings the whole package to an appointment, sometimes with the H1 blank, and the clinic ends up helping with both parts before stapling them together. In Medulla, you send the H1 to the patient over a secure link. They answer the travel and mobility questions on the form from home, and their answers land on the same PDF you complete the H4 on, so the Client Registrar receives one package.
How to fill in the H4 Medical Verification of Eligibility
Conditions and their effect
Name the disability conditions that prevent bus use. Tick the areas affected, such as walking, endurance, vision, memory, cognition, behaviour or personal safety. Mark each as permanent or temporary, and give a duration for temporary ones.
Low floor buses and when the bus is possible
Say whether the condition prevents, rather than makes difficult, use of low floor buses, and when the applicant can use the bus. Be specific about weather, distance, time of day or familiar routes. BC Transit can grant conditional eligibility based on these.
Functional abilities
Work through the list: crossing the street, detecting curbs, walking one to three blocks, waiting at a stop, boarding, standing on a moving bus, planning a trip alone. Explain the answers that matter most in the comments.
Attendant, supervision and sign-off
Say whether a mandatory attendant is needed for behavioural or medical reasons, and whether the applicant can be left alone at home or at their destination. Note any assessment you did, then add your name, signature, relationship to the applicant, qualifications and how long you have known them.
Common reasons it’s delayed
- The application unsigned or undated, or no Power of Attorney copy when a representative applies.
- No PWD Confirmation of Disability Assistance when the applicant has the designation.
- A medical form that names a diagnosis but doesn’t describe ability to use the bus.
- Missed calls from the mobility specialist clinic, which can lead to the application being treated as withdrawn.
Submitting and who pays
Mail the completed package to the Client Registrar, Central Fraser Valley handyDART, 3032 Gladys Avenue, Abbotsford, or call 604-855-0080. The applicant pays any fee for the H4. Eligibility is unconditional, conditional or temporary, and unconditional and conditional eligibility last three years. The applicant can appeal within 90 days of the outcome letter.