New York has lagged for years behind other major American cities in making its subway system accessible to people with disabilities: Just 126 of its 472 stations, or 27 percent, have elevators or ramps that make them fully accessible. But on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would add elevators and ramps to 95 percent of the subway’s stations by 2055 as part of a settlement agreement in two class-action lawsuits over the issue. — The New York Times
The settlement will see 81 subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2025. Another 85 stations will be made accessible by 2035, with 90 more by 2045, and an additional 90 by 2055. The subway stations selected for changes include nine that currently are partially accessible, where passengers who cannot use stairs only have access to trains traveling in one direction. The MTA will be required to allocate approximately 15 percent of the subway’s capital budget for the improvements.
Transit officials have pointed to engineering concerns, construction time, and costs as the factors behind the plan’s lengthy timeline. Even when complete, the subway will not be 100 percent accessible. However, despite this, the agreement, which still requires court approval, addresses an issue that has long prevented commuters with disabilities from accessing the city’s transit system.
5 Comments
Why not 100% of the stations, and in six months?
and add some safety gates on the platforms
Because for some moronic reason settlements always have to prevent the obviously wronged party (in this case PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES) from getting everything they asked for as if life was some sort of fucking game and the non-prevailing side needs to make sure that even a successful legal action doesn't allow anyone to WIN.
2055 is soooooo far into the future that this means it will not happen, no?
I understand it takes time, probably years of work to add elevators and escalators and visual and audio aids, etc to the whole system. But some of that stuff can be done asap and the rest should not take 30 years.
Tokyo has been updating all of their subway stations with elevators for the past 10-20 years, some of them with the safety gates midlander mentioned. It made life easier for everyone, not just those with disabilities, and generally did not take that much time. Months for sure, maybe even half a year for some of the work, but not years. The USA is clearly a dysfunctional place right now, but that timeline is sad.
2055 LOL
Classic modern New York -- bureaucrats creating ambitious sounding programs for 20-30 years in the future, which by that time will be forgotten. But 50 people in the Department of Whatever will pay themselves six figure salaries for putting together the nice booklet.
Meanwhile they much of the subway station in four years in 1904.
Zero accountability or transparency.
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