Laura
06-14-2007, 08:28 AM
Pols Grill MTA on Access for the Disabled (http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-disabled0613,0,5394609.story?coll=am-local-headlines)
By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
MNaanes@am-ny.com
June 13, 2007
As City Council members sought answers Tuesday about how accessible the subway is for disabled riders, transit officials noted they have made $700 million in improvements but were unable to provide basic information about how often elevators break down.
The council's disability and transportation committees asked what New York City Transit is doing to improve a subway system that experiences daily elevator breakdowns and still has gaps between the trains and platforms among other potential hazards to disabled passengers.
TA officials said they are ahead of schedule in making improvement mandated by 2020 that would make 100 s of the system's 468 stations accessible to people with disabilities.
But they couldn't answer how many elevators breakdown on average -- a major complaint of disabled riders -- or how much of the MTA's capital budget is allotted to improvements for disabled riders.
"If you don't know, you can't be very serious about fixing these problems on a day-to-day basis," said City Council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu.
John Gaito, the chief officer of the department of subways, said the TA is continually improving the subway system to meet an initial goal of 67 stations accessible by 2010. By then, 72 stations would have elevators and other equipment, including raised platforms, Braille signs and strips to help vision-impaired people notice the ends of platforms, he said.
Right now, 58 of the city's 468 stations are ADA-compliant and the TA has a hotline that updates elevator outages four times a day. But advocacy groups at Tuesday's meeting said that more than 11 percent of the city's stations need elevators and the hotline isn't updated in time for their morning commute.
Advocates, themselves blind or using wheelchairs, said at the hearing that they've vowed never to take the subway alone or at all because of past experiences that have left them injured or unable to get to their destinations.
"They are certainly taking steps in the right direction but we just don't know that they are moving fast enough in the right direction," said Michael Harris, founder of the Disabled Riders Coalition.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
MNaanes@am-ny.com
June 13, 2007
As City Council members sought answers Tuesday about how accessible the subway is for disabled riders, transit officials noted they have made $700 million in improvements but were unable to provide basic information about how often elevators break down.
The council's disability and transportation committees asked what New York City Transit is doing to improve a subway system that experiences daily elevator breakdowns and still has gaps between the trains and platforms among other potential hazards to disabled passengers.
TA officials said they are ahead of schedule in making improvement mandated by 2020 that would make 100 s of the system's 468 stations accessible to people with disabilities.
But they couldn't answer how many elevators breakdown on average -- a major complaint of disabled riders -- or how much of the MTA's capital budget is allotted to improvements for disabled riders.
"If you don't know, you can't be very serious about fixing these problems on a day-to-day basis," said City Council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu.
John Gaito, the chief officer of the department of subways, said the TA is continually improving the subway system to meet an initial goal of 67 stations accessible by 2010. By then, 72 stations would have elevators and other equipment, including raised platforms, Braille signs and strips to help vision-impaired people notice the ends of platforms, he said.
Right now, 58 of the city's 468 stations are ADA-compliant and the TA has a hotline that updates elevator outages four times a day. But advocacy groups at Tuesday's meeting said that more than 11 percent of the city's stations need elevators and the hotline isn't updated in time for their morning commute.
Advocates, themselves blind or using wheelchairs, said at the hearing that they've vowed never to take the subway alone or at all because of past experiences that have left them injured or unable to get to their destinations.
"They are certainly taking steps in the right direction but we just don't know that they are moving fast enough in the right direction," said Michael Harris, founder of the Disabled Riders Coalition.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.