Accessibility
The mayor, advocates for people with disabilities and even MTA board members have called the move unfair and questioned if the funding shift could worsen service reliability and accountability for Access-A-Ride.
The MTA is assessing new goals and financial needs in a post-pandemic world. Riders with mobility issues remind the agency that serving them humanely is not only the law but “the right thing to do.”
Just over the city limits in Westchester and Nassau County, riders with disabilities aren’t forced to trek to out-of-the-way “assessment centers” to prove their physical capabilities or lack thereof.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission has extended a cap on livery car licenses, which industry leaders say could be a final nail in their coffin.
The paratransit service’s drivers may be seeing more green down the road as the MTA considers multiple measures — including bonuses and paying for bridge and tunnel rides — aimed at boosting reliability, THE CITY has learned.
The reliability of the MTA’s Access-A-Ride paratransit service for New Yorkers with limited mobility has sunk to its lowest level in years — even as ridership has risen to almost 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
The Mets-Willets Point complex — which serves anyone going to Citi Field, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the Queens Museum or Queens Night Market — is still inaccessible for LIRR passengers who can’t navigate stairs.
The new format, which also doubles the public comment period to 60 minutes, was especially welcomed by disabled riders who said the MTA’s unreliable paratransit services kept them from testifying about the MTA’s unreliable paratransit services.
The MTA will no longer require in-person testimony at its board meetings beginning Monday. That means public speakers will once again be allowed to rail remotely against the transit agency — although not in real time.
“Ramps are failproof,” declared Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA’s chief accessibility officer. But installing the slopes isn’t as easy as it might look, and in some cases elevators better fit the bill, some advocates say.
The rule forbidding a continuation of virtual public testimony limited participation by Access-A-Ride users with complaints about service problems, advocates for New Yorkers with limited mobility said. Meanwhile, MTA officials could still phone it in.
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Saheed Adebayo Aare has received salvation from his hellish commute by way of a new position with the online retailer in the city and a bumpy ride to a more convenient homeless shelter.
The transit agency’s leaders want to tap more private developers to make more subway stations Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant. But critics warn that similar partnerships have a spotty track record.
The Union Square Partnership has proposed an ambitious “vision plan” to remake the 19th century park. Accessibility advocates want the overhaul to include technologically difficult upgrades for the sprawling subway station underneath.
Paint jobs, structural repairs and accessibility upgrades are among the capital projects put on hold as the MTA hopes for billions from a more transit friendly Biden administration.
Modernized signals, upgraded subway cars and elevators to make dozens of stations accessible have put on hold indefinitely amid the pandemic’s squeeze on funding.
The pandemic and computer problems are snagging a signal improvement in Queens and Manhattan as the MTA’s record $51 billion overhaul plan is in flux.
The first part of a nearly $18 million review obtained by THE CITY concludes that most of the 100 stops surveyed can be retrofitted with elevators.
A dispute over who’s supposed to operate a mechanized lift presents a barrier at one courthouse. We found more obstacles at other legal facilities.
Lack of automatic doors at the six centers where people with limited mobility must go to get the MTA’s paratransit service raises additional barrier.
Judges, lawyers and litigants make do with trailers and courtroom swaps a decade after a promise of accessible new digs.
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