BY MARK HALLUM
Days after a mother carrying a stroller down the
steps of a subway station died after taking a fall,
Queens state Senator Michael Gianaris is pushing
for greater accessibility through the installation of
elevators, which only 25 percent of stations have,
according to a study conducted by his office.
Malaysia Goodson, 22, died after descending five
flights of stairs at the 7th Avenue-53rd Street station
in Manhattan on Jan. 29. The Metropolitan Transpor-tation
Authority said the railings and steps were in
good condition.
“It is unacceptable and embarrassing for New York
to be the worst in the nation in subway accessibility.
We now have a tragedy that could have been avoided
if better choices were made by the MTA,” Gianaris said.
“For New York to thrive, it must have an MTA for all,
where everyone can access the subway system to
get to work, school and around our city.”
Gianaris used statistics from the National Transit
Administration to compare New York City Transit to
other agencies. The PATH train and Philadelphia’s
PATCO were the only systems that were less ac-cessible.
By contrast, Washington D.C.’s WMATA
is 100 percent Americans with Disabilities Act
compliant.
WMATA has only 91 stations compared to NYC
Transit’s 472 stations along 27 train lines.
118 stations are accessible and 26 more already
funded, the cost of renovating a station to make it
ADA compliant can be heavy.
In June 2018, the MTA awarded a $17 million
contract for builders to install elevators in the 86th
Street Bay Ridge station and has poured up $5 bil-lion
into making stations across the system more
accessible, including $1.4 billion in the 2015-19 MTA
capital program.
About $479 million from the same capital program
has been allocated for the replacement of 42 existing
elevators and 27 escalators, according to the MTA.
However, as part of NYC Transit President Andy
Byford’s Fast Forward plan, New Yorkers can expect
to be no farther than two subway stops from an ADA-accessible
22 FEBRUARY 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
station within the next five years and 100
percent accessibility in 15. Fast Forward may cost up
to $40 billion and lawmakers are still weighing the op-tions
to raise these funds, including congestion pricing.
“This is an absolutely heartbreaking incident. While
the ultimate cause of the event is being investigated
by the MTA, medical examiner and the NYPD, we
know how important it is to improve accessibility in our
system,” an MTA spokesman said. “The Fast Forward
Plan acknowledges and prioritizes this work as one
of four key priorities, and aims to ensure that riders
will never be more than two stops away from a station
with an elevator. This will be accomplished through the
addition of up to 50 elevators over the next five years.”
Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal claimed that it can
cost up to $30 million on average for elevators to be
installed in a station.
“There is zero doubt that we need to expedite
delivery of an accessible subway, a critical commit-ment
of the upcoming capital plan and a milestone
that will be largely achieved once dedicated funding
– through congestion pricing and funding from city
and state partners – can be secured,” MTA President
Patrick Foye said. “Over the course of five years we
will ensure that no rider is further than two stations
away from an accessible subway and the ultimate goal
is to maximize system accessibility after 15 years.”
A preliminary investigation by the MTA of the scene
where Goodson died showed that the stairs, railing,
floor were in good condition and the station has two
escalators, both of which go up, the agency said.
Community News
Queens lawmaker
vows to make subways accessible to all
Photo by Mark Hallum
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