Laura
06-14-2007, 08:32 AM
Stuck in the system (http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Stuck_in_the_system/8975.html)
Disabled rider questions subway access
by amy zimmer / metro new york
JUN 13, 2007
CITY HALL. Michael Harris was an hour late to his own press conference yesterday. The topic was how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority addresses the needs of disabled subway riders, and Harris — the wheelchair-bound executive director of the Disabled Riders Coalition — was delayed by three broken elevators he encountered en route to City Hall.
“While the MTA slogan may be ‘Going your way,’ for disabled riders it’s often ‘Going no way,’” said Harris, who lives near a Q train station in Sheepshead Bay, but can’t use it. He takes a bus to the Brooklyn College/Flatbush Avenue stop on the 2/5 line. That station’s elevator was broken yesterday, as was the next closest accessible stop at Church Avenue and the one at Nostrand Avenue.
“I had to take a very long bus ride back home and drive in,” Harris said. “There are 16 subway elevators out today. That number is not too bad considering we’ve seen numbers as high as 24 to 26.”
According to the MTA, 58 out of 468 subway stations are compliant with the American Disabilities Act. Harris disputes the number.
For example, at the Junction Boulevard 7 train station, the MTA spent more than $6 million to install three elevators, Harris said, but it’s inaccessible because the exit gate only unlocks with a special MetroCard that many disabled people don’t have. Harris said many of the other stations are only partially accessible because they may have an elevator on one side of the platform.
Harris, like other wheelchair riders, has stories about getting stuck in the subway and having to call a station agent for an emergency evacuation. “Sometimes you have to wait an hour or two for emergency services to arrive,” he said, “and when they do, they have to figure out what to do next, whether it’s taking you on a gurney and carrying your wheelchair. Or, if there’s an escalator, sometimes you’ll have three cops in front of you and three behind you holding your wheelchair.”
NYC Transit plans to have 100 fully accessible stations by 2020, with 67 completed by 2010, according to John Gaito, chief operating officer for subways, who testified at yesterday’s City Council hearing.
The agency this year launched a “scheduled maintenance system” to replace equipment before breakdowns, Gaito said, and “we will soon provide up-to-the minute elevator status information” on the MTA’s Web site.
“The agency has invested hundreds of thousands of staff hours and more than $700 million to make the subways accessible,” Gaito said. “But at the same time, we are acutely aware that there is much yet to be done.”
Getting past the turnstiles
NYC Transit installed “AutoGate,” an automatic entry/exit gate that lets disabled customers — those with ambulatory disabilities, in wheelchairs or accompanied by a service animal — swipe their specially encoded, reduced fare MetroCard for access to stations regardless of whether an agent is present. Harris, however, said many riders don’t have those cards and that the gates can malfunction.
Disabled rider questions subway access
by amy zimmer / metro new york
JUN 13, 2007
CITY HALL. Michael Harris was an hour late to his own press conference yesterday. The topic was how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority addresses the needs of disabled subway riders, and Harris — the wheelchair-bound executive director of the Disabled Riders Coalition — was delayed by three broken elevators he encountered en route to City Hall.
“While the MTA slogan may be ‘Going your way,’ for disabled riders it’s often ‘Going no way,’” said Harris, who lives near a Q train station in Sheepshead Bay, but can’t use it. He takes a bus to the Brooklyn College/Flatbush Avenue stop on the 2/5 line. That station’s elevator was broken yesterday, as was the next closest accessible stop at Church Avenue and the one at Nostrand Avenue.
“I had to take a very long bus ride back home and drive in,” Harris said. “There are 16 subway elevators out today. That number is not too bad considering we’ve seen numbers as high as 24 to 26.”
According to the MTA, 58 out of 468 subway stations are compliant with the American Disabilities Act. Harris disputes the number.
For example, at the Junction Boulevard 7 train station, the MTA spent more than $6 million to install three elevators, Harris said, but it’s inaccessible because the exit gate only unlocks with a special MetroCard that many disabled people don’t have. Harris said many of the other stations are only partially accessible because they may have an elevator on one side of the platform.
Harris, like other wheelchair riders, has stories about getting stuck in the subway and having to call a station agent for an emergency evacuation. “Sometimes you have to wait an hour or two for emergency services to arrive,” he said, “and when they do, they have to figure out what to do next, whether it’s taking you on a gurney and carrying your wheelchair. Or, if there’s an escalator, sometimes you’ll have three cops in front of you and three behind you holding your wheelchair.”
NYC Transit plans to have 100 fully accessible stations by 2020, with 67 completed by 2010, according to John Gaito, chief operating officer for subways, who testified at yesterday’s City Council hearing.
The agency this year launched a “scheduled maintenance system” to replace equipment before breakdowns, Gaito said, and “we will soon provide up-to-the minute elevator status information” on the MTA’s Web site.
“The agency has invested hundreds of thousands of staff hours and more than $700 million to make the subways accessible,” Gaito said. “But at the same time, we are acutely aware that there is much yet to be done.”
Getting past the turnstiles
NYC Transit installed “AutoGate,” an automatic entry/exit gate that lets disabled customers — those with ambulatory disabilities, in wheelchairs or accompanied by a service animal — swipe their specially encoded, reduced fare MetroCard for access to stations regardless of whether an agent is present. Harris, however, said many riders don’t have those cards and that the gates can malfunction.