Emily F. Keller: Journalist

MTA Plans to Reduce Access-A-Ride Service

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving forward with plans to make deep cuts to Access-A-Ride service during the next several months.

    The MTA will convert 12 percent, or 757,000 door-to-door trips, into a reduced service bringing customers to bus and train stations if they are determined to have the ability to complete the trip on mass transit. This will impact customers whose determinations say they can travel 2 to 5 blocks.

    This article was published in Able News.  Click here to read the article.

MTA Approves Access-A-Ride, Bus and Subway Cuts

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board approved a wide-ranging package of service cuts that will take effect by the end of June unless alternative sources of funding are allocated to prevent them.

    The changes, which the board approved at its March 24 meeting, include an expansion of the original proposal to transform a portion of door-to-door Access-A-Ride trips into a feeder service that would bring customers to accessible bus and train stations instead of taking them all the way to their destinations.

    This article was published in Able News.  Click here to read the story.

MTA Budget Cuts Will Hit Disabled

    Clara Bailon is one of 900,000 New Yorkers with a disability who is bracing for Metropolitan Transportation Authority service cuts this June that promise to make an already challenging transit system more difficult to use.

    But even as the budget ax falls, disabled riders will continue to benefit from long-term technological and capital improvements that make the system more accessible.

    Bailon of the Bronx is a power-wheelchair user and transit safety advocate who takes buses, subways and Access-A-Ride vehicles to athletic activities, to see family and friends and, occasionally, to attend public hearings—where she tells the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) about accessibility challenges she experiences while traveling.

    This article was published by City Limits. Click here to read the full story.

Getting From Here To There

    Transportation groups and activists are discussing contingency plans in the face of a planned reduction in bus, subway and Access-A-Ride services that are scheduled to take effect by the end of June.

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board voted March 24 to cut 33 bus lines and two subway lines, revise service on 64 buses and transform Access-A-Ride – a door-to-door service for people with disabilities – into a shuttle to nearby buses and trains for some customers.

    This article was published by City Limits. Click here to read the full article.

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.

MTA Plan Will Cut Buses, Subways and Access-A-Ride

    People with disabilities and their advocates are voicing their opposition to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) latest plan to cut service on Access-A-Ride, buses and subways.

    The MTA said it will modify Access-A-Ride service by bringing customers to the nearest accessible subway or bus station rather than going all the way to their destination. The MTA also plans to tighten eligibility standards and increase the use of taxi vouchers.

    The MTA board announced the plan at its December meeting following a string of bad financial news that reduced the transportation budget by $383 million.

    This article was published in Able News. Click on the page numbers to read the story: one, two and three.

MTA Approves Plans to Cut Subway, Bus and Access-A-Ride

    The Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority passed a budget and financial plan that would shrink service options for disabled riders beginning in April 2010.

    The service cuts are similar to those that were approved and then rescinded earlier this year when the state government provided a $2.3 billion annual funding package.

     However, the paratransit cuts have changed. In lieu of the proposed fare hike that drew strong criticism, the MTA has proposed changing the nature of the service, bringing customers to accessible subway and bus stops rather than their destinations.

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

Fifty-Ninth Street Station Elevators are Operational

    The 59th Street - Columbus Circle subway station has four working elevators to take disabled travelers and others from street level to turnstiles and subway platforms. However, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has not informed the public that they exist.   

    An elevator at the corner of 58th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan takes passengers to the gate and booth level of the station. There is one elevator that takes passengers from there to the platform of the downtown A, B, C, D and 1 trains. Another two elevators take passengers from the booth level to the uptown platform for the same trains. One more elevator is still under construction.

    Edith Prentiss (pictured), an advocate for accessible transit and a member of the New York City Transit Riders Council – an independent advisory board to the MTA – explored the station last week to locate the elevators. “We’re path finding,” she said.

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

A Trip to Dance

     As Clara Bailon pushed over sidewalk cracks outside her home in the Bronx, she told stories about the old days.

    She remembered being left on the curb on her way to the beach with friends by a bus with a broken lift in the 1980s. She recalled quitting her job at a bank in lower Manhattan after graduating from college because glitches in the transit system made it difficult to show up on time. She talked about harassment and indifference from transit workers and commuters. She remembered being tripped over on the subway stairs during rush hour.

    “You have to learn to be a little assertive having a disability,” Bailon said about her experience with Access-A-Ride and the subway and bus systems.

    Bailon has spent decades asserting herself within a complex transit system that expands its accessible options gradually but incompletely. She praises the “good Samaritans” who have stepped in where the system falls short, lifting her wheelchair over gaps between subways and platforms where wheels sometimes stall, and offering directions to accessible subway stops that comprise less than one-fifth of the subway system.

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

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.