Fulfilling MTA’s accessibility promise

When I begin my morning commute and make my way down the stairs to get onto the Lexington Ave. line, I am made aware of the simple fact that the MTA system remains a challenge for so many NewYorkerswithlimitedmobility. As the head of NYC Transit, I have made it a priority to tackle the issue of accessibility systemwide — from Astoria to Inwood — so we can ensure all our customers can get where they need to go in a New York minute.

Within 100 working days of my arrival, we put together Fast Forward, our vision to modernize every aspect of New York City Transit. Fully one-quarter of that plan is dedicated to expediting work to make the transit system as close to fully accessible as possible, as quickly as possible. Specifically, Fast Forward puts a focus on improving accessibility, both in the short- and long-term.

I understand that this promise must be backed by action. That’s why I wasted no time in recruiting the MTA’s first-ever senior adviser for systemwide accessibility, Alex Elegudin, who himself is a wheelchair user. Alex has built a world-class accessibility team around him that is laserfocused on making immediate improvements.

The MTA then continued to build upon Fast Forward with the release of the historic 2020-2024 Capital Plan with an unprecedented $5.5 billion dedicated to making 70 additional stations accessible systemwide. We have announced 48 of those new stations, which will meet our goal of ensuring customers are never more than two stations away from an accessible station. And we are conducting a robust community outreach process on the additional 22 stations and we will be releasing those locations in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, our team has forgedaheadwitharangeofsolutions to make the MTA more accessible today, including:

Immediate improvements to our existing Access-A-Ride service. We’re expanding the types of trips offered and leveraging more taxis and for-hire vehicles. Seven hundred new vehicles have also been added to our aging fleet.

Making Access-A-Ride trips more user friendly. Customers can take advantage of improved GPS tracking to follow along with their trips on an app and a webpage.

We also worked with advocates and NYC DOT to allow Access-A-Ride vehicle usage in bus lanes for better service to our customers.

Doubling access to our e-hail pilot for on-demand service from 1,200 users to 2,400.

Recruiting and training more maintainers plus undertaking more proactive maintenance, including cleaning, to keep elevators in service and in good condition.

Improving real-time dissemination of outage information on the app, on station signage and our webpage to keep customers informed.

Refreshing sensitivity training for all NYC Transit employees in terms of supporting differentlyabled customers.

I want to be clear that accessibility isn’t just about adding elevators, important as they are. It’s also vital to address aural, visual and cognitive impairment. The recently-launched accessibility lab at Jay Street-MetroTech is proving to be a fertile ground for innovation in this regard.

We’ve tested a mix of physical infrastructure and smartphone apps geared toward making subway travel accessible to riders of all abilities. Those measures include tactile guideways, colorful way-finding strips on station floors and stairs, Braille signage and interactive subway maps. Apps like NaviLens provide audio versions of sign information for people who are visually impaired.

The Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility was created to help address these concerns. This all-volunteer group, which first started meeting in June, is madeupofcommunitymembers who are committed to working with NYC Transit on a range of accessibility issues. Our first group of 18 members represents persons from across the spectrum of disabilities, including temporary disabilities. The committee collects community and rider feedback on subways, buses and Access-A-Ride paratransit.

New York City Transit considers accessibility a serious priority and we are taking action to improve the lives of our customers. This will not change. We look forward to continuing to work with paratransit users to create the most inclusive transit system possible.