Emily F. Keller: Journalist

City Council Transportation Committee Questions MTA Cuts

   MTA New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast spent last Thursday morning fending off criticism from the City Council Transportation Committee about drastic service cuts planned for this spring.

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to eliminate or reduce service on dozens of bus lines, saying that many of the lines overlap with other MTA bus and subway services.

    However, many seniors and people with disabilities are unable to switch to the subway if their bus route disappears, or may require a particular bus to reach the accessible subway stops that comprise only one-fifth of the system.

    The MTA also plans to reduce Access-A-Ride paratransit service while promising to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines that requires the transit provider to offer the service to people who are unable to use subways and buses because of a disability. Kathy Andrade and J.M. Colon (pictured) said they oppose the cuts.

    This article was published on Transportation Access. Click here to read the article.

Voting Upgrades Could Bring NYC Closer to Compliance

     Electronic voting machines will increase equality for people with disabilities in the 2010 election, but poll site accessibility will be pivotal to making sure voters can get to them.

     The city's Board of Elections received a poor rating on poll site accessibility from the Center for the Independence of the Disabled following the November 2009 election.

    Click here to read the article in Able News.

Advocates See Improvements With House Bill

    The U.S. House of Representatives passed a landmark bill Nov. 7 that promises more choices and greater access to services for people with disabilities.

    The Affordable Health Care for America Act, or H.R. 3962, is expected to expand health care coverage to an additional 5 percent of Americans - or 40 million people - and to improve existing coverage, for a cost of $891 billion. The House passed the bill with a vote of 220-215.

    Published in Able News. Click here to read the article.

County Considers Combining Office for the Physically Challenged with Senior Affairs Department

    Nassau County is proposing to merge the local Office for the Physically Challenged with the Department of Senior Citizen Affairs following the retirement of three staff members and Director Don Dreyer.

    The office provides parking permits to people with disabilities, performs advocacy work and assists the county in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for accessible accommodations. It now has three department employees and an attorney while the seniors department has 33 full-time staff members.

    Published in Able News. Click here to read page one and here to read page two.

Utah Transit Authority Cuts Monthly Paratransit Pass and Service Area

    The Utah Transit Authority has made new cuts to its specialized transportation service for people with disabilities, where ridership has already dropped by more than 50 percent since 2000.   

    Starting today, paratransit riders in Salt Lake City are no longer able to purchase unlimited monthly trip passes. By next October, trips beyond three-quarters of a mile from mass transit bus stops will also be eliminated.

    The UTA board of trustees voted in late August to eliminate the $84 unlimited ride pass for the shared ride service, citing agency-wide cuts stemming from declining tax revenue. Customers who made more than 16 round trips per month – at a cost of $2.50 per trip – benefited from the pass.

    UTA also voted to discontinue rides outside the legally required service area of three-quarters of a mile from mass transit bus and rail stops. UTA will phase out the additional trips over the next 12 months while working with customers to identify alternative methods of travel. The primary substitute is a new deviated route service that picks up riders in the vicinity of a set area for an extra $1 but is not regulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    Published on Transportation Access. Click here to read the article.

Assemblyman Kellner Evaluates Taxi Dispatch System

    Assemblyman Micah Kellner (Dist, 65-D) has released a report on the accessible taxi dispatch system in New York City.

    The June report, "Stranded: How the TLC (Taxi and Limousine Commission) is Failing Wheelchair Users," criticizes the Taxi and Limousine Commission's Central Dispatch pilot program that has matched customers with accessible taxis using the 311 call center since July 2008.

    Kellner based his findings on 20 monitored calls to the system, and additional research. He concluded that accessible taxis have been subject to a more rigorous approval process than hybrid vehicles, the accessible dispatch program has not been well advertised, and service through the program is unreliable on nights and weekends and outside of Manhattan.

   Published in Able News. Click here to read the story.

Celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act

   

    Disability rights activist Elaine Kolb (pictured) and about 30 other people celebrated the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act yesterday with music, poetry and speeches in Central Park. 

    The landmark legislation prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in transportation as well as employment, access to government, commercial or public facilities, and telecommunications. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990.

    Published on Transportation Access.

    Read the story and view photos.

Access-A-Ride Eligibility Process Leads to More Withdrawals

    Thousands of potential applicants for New York City's Access-A-Ride paratransit service informally withdraw their applications every month by missing their appointment for an in-person assessment.

    About half of the people who call Access-A-Ride to register have missed their eligibility appointment since March 2007, when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority changed the application process. The new policy requires in-person interviews and physical tests to prove that people are functionally unable to use buses and trains, according to criteria in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Prior to the change, Access-A-Ride registered half of its applicants by mail and referred half for assessments, leading to hundreds of withdrawals per month rather than thousands.

    Published on Transportation Access. Read the story.

Paratransit Eligibility Assessments Required at More Transit Agencies

    The nation’s transit agencies are increasing their oversight of people with disabilities who apply for federally mandated transportation service.

     Applicants to the paratransit program are more likely to undergo functional assessments and in-person interviews than in years past, when registration was often completed by mail with a doctor’s note. Assessments were traditionally used for people whose need for the shared ride service was difficult to prove by mail. Now many cities are requiring all applicants to apply in person, following the lead of Pittsburgh, which has used assessments since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 took effect. Since 2001, in-person assessments also became mandatory in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago and Washington D.C.

    Published on Transportation Access. Read the story.

National Study Examines Paratransit Eligibility Testing

    A national research institute in Tampa, Florida spent more than $100,000 to study the human impacts of paratransit eligibility testing without interviewing any customers.

    Two senior researchers for the National Center for Transit Research examined industry data and spoke with 39 transit agencies through written surveys, ten phone interviews and one in-person conversation for the study, "Impacts of More Rigorous ADA Paratransit Eligibility Assessments on Riders with Disabilities." The researchers, Jay Goodwill and Deborah Sapper, did not interview paratransit applicants or customers or include transit riders groups in the data analysis that spanned 18 months with funds from the Florida Department of Transportation.

    Published on Transportation Access. Read the story.