How to create a personal bus shelter and wheelchair garage

by Anna
(The Special Life)

Our son watches a phone video while in his personal outdoor waiting area

If you have students or family members that need to wait outside for a bus to arrive, then you can probably benefit from our idea.

Our son started taking the schoolbus every morning a few months ago - at the start of the winter. Up until that point, we drove him to school, and his wheelchair stayed in the van, ready to be used at school.

Having to be ready and waiting outside for the bus to appear every morning however created two problems for us.

1. We needed a place to store his wheelchair so it was warm and ready for him to use.

2. We needed to be able to get him into his chair and settled, and also wait for the bus while being sheltered from the weather.

Our solution was to buy a small ice hut and keep it at the bottom of our front stairs. We then also added a garage heater inside (along with two heavy bricks) and a timer to start the heater two hours before we needed to use the hut and wheelchair.

Using an ice hut as a bus shelter and wheelchair garage has worked great all winter, and now is working well to protect us from spring rain showers too.

Keeping the wheelchair inside doesn't work well for two reasons - space and dirt. Like most homes, our house was not designed for wheelchair accessibility when built, so we have no place to store the wheelchair inside. (he only uses it when outside the home) And, even if we did, we wouldn't want to be tracking in all the snow and mud from the wheelchair tire into the house every day either.

This way, we can keep it outside, and it will still be warm and ready when we need it. This idea would work well for anyone that has a motorized scooter as well.

And, when we thought about it, anyone who ever has to wait for a bus outside would benefit. I can remember watching a senior in our neighbourhood have to wait outside in the cold and rain for the public wheelchair bus to arrive, and she hated it. This would have made life so much easier for her.

As well, any kids who need to wait for a schoolbus would probably like this option as well, especially in rural areas.

The hut we chose has "windows", so that we can watch for the bus from the safety and comfort of our hut. To keep my son entertained while waiting, I let him watch videos on my phone.

Waiting outside for the bus is now a treat for him!