Get accessible subways on track

For most New Yorkers, using public transit is a relatively uncomplicated part of daily life in the region. It’s not something that you give much thought to. You simply walk down into any subway or commuter rail station and grab the next train.

For wheelchair users like ourselves, however, navigating the system is a daily challenge. The same is true for seniors with mobility disabilities, parents with children using strollers, and so many others. The truth is that the subway system was not designed with inclusivity in mind. Today, just 28% of New York City Transit’s 493 subway and Staten Island Railway stations are accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

As the MTA’s first-ever chief accessibility officer, the commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities who also serves as the only current member of the authority’s board with a self-disclosed disability, and a leading disability rights advocate, we have experienced the barriers to systemwide accessibility firsthand. The subway system is 117 years old, space underground is limited and existing utilities are expensive and sometimes near impossible to move.

Despite these challenges, a pandemic and a dire financial crisis, accessibility remains at the forefront of the MTA’s agenda. In 2020, the MTA made 11 more stations ADA-accessible — tying the number completed in the seven-year period from 2012 to 2018. The historic $51.5 billion 2020-2024 capital program, enacted prior to the pandemic, would make an additional 77 MTA New York City Transit, Staten Island Railway, Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road stations accessible. While further emergency federal aid is needed to allow the entire capital program to be completed, at least 10 of these projects are set to get underway this year.

The MTA’s goal with the accessibility commitments we’ve already made is to ensure that no rider is more than two subway stops away from an ADA-accessible station. We know, however, that our transit system will not truly meet the needs of all New Yorkers and visitors until every station is accessible.

That’s why the MTA, New York City Department of City Planning, the mayor’s office and a wide range of community advocates have been working together to propose a new zoning change this month. The reform would allow the MTA to increase accessibility at an even faster pace. It’s called Elevate Transit: Zoning for Accessibility, and it would allow the MTA to work with private developers that are building near transit stations. Under the terms of the proposal, companies could more easily incorporate elevators and other station accessibility improvements into their designs or simply build these upgrades themselves at no cost to the MTA. This, in turn, would enable the MTA to redirect the savings on such projects to additional accessibility work.

This approach is not without precedent. In the past, similar zoning mechanisms were used to bring elevators to stations such as Court Square-23rd Street and Grand Central Terminal. Unfortunately, the provisions that enabled that vital work to get done are only applicable to select parts of the city, and the current approval process makes it exceedingly difficult for developers to participate in a way that is more scalable across the system. As a result, less than a dozen stations have received elevators in this manner since the 1980s.

It’s time to change that.

Over the coming months, the City Council will begin to discuss our proposed changes. We implore New Yorkers of all backgrounds to call on their elected officials to approve these improvements as possible. The proposed new measure was carefully informed by conversations with advocates from the transit and disability communities, as well as with older New Yorkers. It is backed by urban planners and real estate developers alike. In short, the creation of this proposal came out of widespread consensus from a broad range of constituencies.

For us, this is obviously a deeply personal matter, but the ongoing work of building a fully inclusive transit system is something that benefits New Yorkers of all backgrounds. Federal interest in infrastructure has been incredibly encouraging and this could be a historic moment for building the city’s future.

To ensure it is, we need to continue this important work of creating a system that lives up to our greatest aspirations for what New York can become.

Arroyo is the MTA’s first-ever systemwide chief accessibility officer. Calise is the commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and an MTA Board Member. Prentiss was a New York City-based disability rights advocate who was a member of MTA New York City Transit’s Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility. She co-wrote this op-ed before passing away in March.