As the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) approaches, it’s an appropriate time to consider what the statute and implementation of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) regulations have done for transportation options available to people with disabilities in the U.S., and New York, specifically.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which was sued by United Spinal Association (then called Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, or EPVA) way back in 1979 to make buses and subways accessible, has had a 100% wheelchair accessible bus system for decades. MTA’s decades-long reluctance, however, to make subway stations accessible, and its elimination of interborough bus routes have unnecessarily caused disabled people to become dependent on Access-A-Ride paratransit at great cost to taxpayers. The years since 1982, when the first accessible buses began arriving in NYC, could have been spent promoting accessible transit to New Yorkers with disabilities, coordinating intermodal accessible travel, making as many commuter rail and subway stations accessible as possible, and integrating accessible taxis into the paratransit system, which would permit “real time” dispatching and substantially reduce cost per ride.
Instead, New York’s citizens with disabilities complain bitterly about late or “no show” Access-A-Ride vehicles, which by ADA regulation, do not need to be dispatched in “real time” (like rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft) and must be reserved at least 24 hours in advance, making spontaneous travel impossible.
Most of the accessible transportation initiatives in New York have been the result of advocacy by riders with disabilities rather than inclusive transit planning. For example, curb ramps, essential to independent travel and required by ADA, have been the subject of major litigation in New York City. And as you read this, the City is currently attempting to wiggle out of its Settlement Agreement with United Spinal and Taxis for All, among others plaintiffs, instead of working with MTA to bring down the costs of Access-A-Ride and Medicaid to bring down the costs of Medicaid-sponsored ambulette travel.
While advocates and City Hall have gotten rideshare services to provide accessible service in New York City, they do not pick up wheelchair users in Westchester, Suffolk or Nassau Counties, New Jersey, and other suburban locations. Using them to commute is not a possibility.
What should USDOT do to bring its regulation, drafted in 1991, into the 2020s?
I helped draft both the transportation provisions of the ADA (based on our Settlement Agreements with MTA and Philadelphia’s SEPTA system) and the USDOT ADA regulations. I know that the drafters, who represented transit and people with disabilities, tried to require “state of the art” improvements.
The ADA required key stations to be made accessible by 2020, 24-hour advance request paratransit for those who can’t use accessible transit and accessible buses. It should be revisited by USDOT to require real time paratransit dispatching, and every station to be made accessible. MTA recently announced a commitment to 100% accessible subway stations, the last to be completed in 2055, 76 years after EPVA sued for access. I will be 104 years old at the ribbon cutting.
All available accessible vehicles should be used to facilitate and coordinate transportation for those with mobility impairments. Since the George W. Bush administration, it has been permissible to use Medicaid, social services, Veterans Affairs, school, and vocational rehabilitation agency-funded accessible vehicles to reduce paratransit costs by taking people to buses and trains (called feeder services in the regulation). A revisited ADA regulation should require this. Obviously, New York’s accessible taxis should be used in this manner as well.
The area in which the ADA requires transit operators to provide paratransit is a ¾ mile ellipse around bus routes. In NYC, which is saturated with mass transit, this does not exclude people in wheelchairs from paratransit, but in the suburbs, where there are MTA service area dead zones, outside of the ¾ mile ellipse, wheelchair users and others needing paratransit are left without transportation.
As the population ages, New Yorkers will regret the short-sightedness of its transportation planners and appreciate the improvements brought about by disabled advocacy.
USDOT should scour the country for innovative transportation solutions (like gap fillers between platform and train) and make them models for new and different ADA requirements.
The ADA transportation requirements were progressive in the early 1990s when there were no cell phones, accessible taxis, or rideshare vehicles being dispatched in real time. It’s time to integrate the past 34 years of experience and innovation into new ADA transportation regulations.
Opinions expressed are solely those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Able News at The Viscardi Center and/or The Viscardi Center.