Laura
06-13-2007, 08:14 AM
MTA Questioned Over Accessibility For Disabled Riders (http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=70633)
June 12, 2007
The City Council heard from the MTA and disabled riders Tuesday regarding handicapped access underground.
“New York City Transit Authority proudly touts operating the largest and best subway system. That may be true for most riders, but for disabled riders it’s one of worst," said advocate Michael Harris.
Highlighting the point, Harris said he encountered three broken elevators just trying to get to City Hall for the hearing.
"The MTA has consistently ignored the needs of riders with disabilities and treated us like second-class citizens,” said Harris.
Citing elevator outages and a lack of support and information, advocates for the handicapped spoke before the City Council to demand equal access to the city's subways.
At the hearing, City Councilman John Liu said the fact that transit officials were unable to give him a rough estimate of elevator outages in the subway system is unacceptable.
"What level of outage was being experienced by the system and suffered by the people with disabilities who were relying on those elevators?” asked Liu. “Any competent manager would have that basic measure available at the top of their heads if they were truly serious about decreasing that."
"There's machinery, there's a whole bunch of factors that you can't just specifically call out a number,” responded NYC Transit American Disability Act Compliance Officer John Gaito.
"This is not an esoteric statistic we're asking for here,” continued Liu. “I mean, you should have an idea roughly how many of the elevators are out."
NYC Transit does release quarterly data on elevator reliability.
For the first quarter of this year, it reported elevator reliability was almost 98 percent; escalator reliability was reportedly up 97 percent.
But that figure does not count all the time an elevator is out of service, only the time it's actually out of service for repairs.
Even the agency's new president told NY1 in an interview last month he has a problem with the way the statistics are calculated.
"It doesn't matter whether the motor is burned out, or somebody hit the emergency button,” said NYC Transit President Howard Roberts. “When you walk up to it, it's not working."
The MTA says the number of elevator outages is no secret. They even maintain a hotline riders can call to find out which elevators are down at any given time. Furthermore, MTA officials told the City Council Tuesday that they are also planning to put that information on the MTA website, which would allow for up-to-the-minute updates."
"We're trying to improve so that everyone will know just how many are out at a given time," said Gaito.
The MTA is also working to alleviate another issue: the platform gap that makes getting on the subway difficult for those in wheelchairs. At some stations, the agency's replacing wood rubbing boards with boards made of flexible synthetic material that is more durable, and can therefore be made wider, making the gap narrower.
-Bobby Cuza
June 12, 2007
The City Council heard from the MTA and disabled riders Tuesday regarding handicapped access underground.
“New York City Transit Authority proudly touts operating the largest and best subway system. That may be true for most riders, but for disabled riders it’s one of worst," said advocate Michael Harris.
Highlighting the point, Harris said he encountered three broken elevators just trying to get to City Hall for the hearing.
"The MTA has consistently ignored the needs of riders with disabilities and treated us like second-class citizens,” said Harris.
Citing elevator outages and a lack of support and information, advocates for the handicapped spoke before the City Council to demand equal access to the city's subways.
At the hearing, City Councilman John Liu said the fact that transit officials were unable to give him a rough estimate of elevator outages in the subway system is unacceptable.
"What level of outage was being experienced by the system and suffered by the people with disabilities who were relying on those elevators?” asked Liu. “Any competent manager would have that basic measure available at the top of their heads if they were truly serious about decreasing that."
"There's machinery, there's a whole bunch of factors that you can't just specifically call out a number,” responded NYC Transit American Disability Act Compliance Officer John Gaito.
"This is not an esoteric statistic we're asking for here,” continued Liu. “I mean, you should have an idea roughly how many of the elevators are out."
NYC Transit does release quarterly data on elevator reliability.
For the first quarter of this year, it reported elevator reliability was almost 98 percent; escalator reliability was reportedly up 97 percent.
But that figure does not count all the time an elevator is out of service, only the time it's actually out of service for repairs.
Even the agency's new president told NY1 in an interview last month he has a problem with the way the statistics are calculated.
"It doesn't matter whether the motor is burned out, or somebody hit the emergency button,” said NYC Transit President Howard Roberts. “When you walk up to it, it's not working."
The MTA says the number of elevator outages is no secret. They even maintain a hotline riders can call to find out which elevators are down at any given time. Furthermore, MTA officials told the City Council Tuesday that they are also planning to put that information on the MTA website, which would allow for up-to-the-minute updates."
"We're trying to improve so that everyone will know just how many are out at a given time," said Gaito.
The MTA is also working to alleviate another issue: the platform gap that makes getting on the subway difficult for those in wheelchairs. At some stations, the agency's replacing wood rubbing boards with boards made of flexible synthetic material that is more durable, and can therefore be made wider, making the gap narrower.
-Bobby Cuza