At City Council Hearing, Spinal Injury Group Urges More Accessible New York City Subway Stations, Prompt Station Elevator Repairs and Gap-Filling Equipment
United Spinal Association, the group that in 1979 initiated a successful lawsuit against New York City Transit to require the start of elevator installation at major subway stations, testified today before a joint meeting of the City Council Disability Services and Transportation Committees that all subway stations should be accessible in the future, and equipped with both elevators that work reliably and devices that bridge the gap between the platform and subway car.
United Spinal’s Terence Moakley told the Council Committees that “between 120 and 125 total stations will be wheelchair-accessible by the year 2020. They will be only 25% of the total subway system stations. Simply put, this is just not enough accessible subway stations to serve not only wheelchair and scooter users, but individuals with other disabling conditions that the ADA includes, and our aging population—all of whom will live longer due to advances in medical treatments, and therefore will be at a higher risk of acquiring a physical disability.”
The “gap” problem—the horizontal space/vertical step which exists between the subway platform and the subway train, must also be solved. Moakley added, “The existence of this gap keeps persons who use wheelchairs and scooters, as well as other ambulatory mobility device users, off the subway system completely. It’s beyond high time that this issue be solved in New York City’s subway system.”
Moakley concluded his comments with remarks about subway elevators. “It is absolutely absurd that twelve years after elevator installation began, people with disabilities must call an elevator ‘hotline’ to find out if elevator(s) are working at the accessible subway stations they want to use on any given day. Broken subway elevators are frustrating, but worse is the inordinate amount of time it takes to repair them.”
Headquartered in Jackson Heights, United Spinal Association is a national, not-for-profit organization with more than 8,000 members across the country, all of whom have spinal cord injuries or disorders that require daily use of a wheeled-mobility device.