The storied rainbow bagels of Brooklyn, New York, have inspired many a pilgrimage to the borough. In honor of Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation challenged comedian Zach Anner to make the trek via train. Behold, the now-viral video.
Because he's Zach, the video's amusing (that moment with the "Statue of Liberty"!!!) but at heart, it's sobering. It doesn't seem like much progress has been made in subway accessibility since the 2013 short documentary The Long Wait by filmmaker Jason DaSilva, which shed light on challenges he faced getting around New York as a person with disability. In 2015, mass transit enthusiast Matthew Ahn posted a revised Metropolitan Transit Authority Map on his blog that only showed accessible stops. The map was shockingly sparse; of the 490 train stations in the New York subway system, not even 100 are accessible, he noted.
And now? Wikipedia points to a total of 122 stations in New York, as of this writing, that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Yet more troubling is the fact that New York is considered one of the most accessible cities in the country, despite its shortcomings.
New York has invested a kajillion dollars in a new subway extension on the Upper East Side. Although weekly and monthly MetroCard fares just went up, whether that money will go toward making ancient stations accessible is dubious. Other fare hikes have come before, yet enabling people with disability to use our city's trains has not been a priority. At least Zach and CPF are raising awareness about what it's like to travel around a city on wheels...or not.
Original photo in subway sign composite: Flickr/MTA Photos
I wish I knew how to say this better/more politely, because the lack of accessible MTA stations is a MAJOR problem (and the lack of communication about which stations are suddenly inaccessible due to broken elevators a worse one), but...you might want to change how you phrased the last part of your post, because a fare hike literally JUST went into effect the other day: http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/transit/2017/03/19/straphangers-predictably-frustrated-with-mta-fare-hike--paying-more-for-the-same-old-service.html So (IMO) phrasing it as "unless a fare hike is planned" takes away from your strong point, because it makes it seem like your information (about the fares, but also possibly about the accessibility issues) is outdated.
ReplyDeleteAh! I'd heard the base fare of $2.75 wasn't going up and it didn't but you're right, the weekly and monthly cards increased. My bad. Thanks, Barrie.
DeleteWhen my son was in 6th grade he broke his leg. As a result, he was on a wheelchair for about two months. It was the most sobering experience, one every newyorker should try, just to get a sense of how unfair this state of things is for those of us who have moobility issues.
ReplyDeleteOn a smaller scale, years ago I hurt my foot and had to either find an elevator (not always possible) or hobble up stairs. when I rode the trains. It was just a glimpse into what some people have to deal with on a regular basis, but eye-opening. I agree, if all New Yorkers had to experience that there would be a lot more outrage about the situation.
Deletei had watched that video and it definitely annoyed me- someone should not have to wait an hour to take an elevator from their room to the hotel lobby. It's almost as if you have to build in a huge buffer of time to even do anything if you are in a wheelchair/unable to climb stairs.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone needs to see this video. Right now since our daughter is smaller, we try to get her around in a stroller, but that sometimes means I have to carry her in the stroller upstairs if we unexpectedly run into a situation where there isn't an elevator and thought there would be one. We don't live in a major city, but I can't imagine what it would be like if we had to deal with this on a daily basis.
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