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New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

nytimes.com

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Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#21

Post by Tokkemon »

popopobobobo wrote: post #2

I think MTA should also consider putting a barrier on the edge of the platform. So that we won't get dozens of people being pushed off to the rails.

6 people died from being struck by trains in a year (I think that was 2015 they pushed in their advertisements). There were about 1.76 billion rides in the same period.

As much as it's a feel-good measure, there is no conceivable way to justify the incredible expense of platform doors for such a small number of instances.

And the dirty secret is most of those are suicides. If they can't kill themselves on a train, they'll just go to the nearest bridge.

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#22

Post by struct »

It's the same situation in London, only about 25% of Underground stations are accessible[1]. This seems to be the cost of old infrastructure - when most of the network was built, accessibility simply wasn't a consideration. Neither was having a decent mobile signal, or air conditioning. Fortunately, we've learned from this and newer systems like the ones in Shanghai and Taiwan seem to be far more accessible.

[1] https://tfl.gov.uk/transport-accessibility/wheelchair-access...

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#23

Post by Tokkemon »

baron816 wrote: post #11
covercash wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like this maybe? http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/23/korean-company-...

I think it's crazy that the MTA hasn't already done this. Not only would it save a lot of lives, but it would also allow the platform to be climate controlled. You have no idea how many times I've sat there underground for 30+ minutes in sub-freezing or 100+ degree heat.

So we also have to pay for new HVAC systems on almost five hundred commercial buildings (that's what they are, even if underground) with no space for them? Cool.

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#25

Post by slowandlow »

spyspy wrote: post #4

> only 92 of the system’s 425 stations accessible > On average, 25 elevators a day stop working Do 27% of elevators really break down on a _daily_ basis? That is abysmal if accurate.

I don't see too many elevators and hopefully it gets fixed with the push the governor is making towards modernizing stations across NYC.

It's important to remember that a lot of the stations, in Lower Manhattan especially, are way too small (4-5 foot wide platforms with 2 stairwells). I don't see elevators happening at those stations. A lot of these smaller platforms are connected other small platforms via stairs (think Canal Street - JZQNR6).

Good luck if your stop is on a bridge in Brooklyn or Queens.

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#26

Post by 1_2__3 »

This just in: the entire world isn't wheelchair-accessible. Is this just supposed to be a pointless injection of moral outrage? How many millions - or billions - of dollars should we spend on "fixing" the NY Subway for wheelchairs? At what point do we pass the threshold of reasonable cost-benefit and descend into hemorrhaging money and resources to accommodate every differently-abled person in the world?

That last question isn't rhetorical: if you're going to downvote please explain how we evaluate the efficacy of these efforts, and explain what the upper bound on "accommodations" should be.

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#27

Post by athenot »

houshuang wrote: post #16

Same in Paris, we just vacationed there for five days, with a two year old. Very difficult to navigate in a stroller (good proxy for a wheelchair - I can lift it down the stairs, but my wife cannot alone). However, there it's quite a difficult problem to solve (I recognize) because a lot of the transfers between different stations are a bunch of underground hallways with staircases in all directions, so it's not simp…

In Paris, the accessible stations are indicated on the maps. While that doesn't fix the accessibility issue, it can help a little bit with finding alternate stations.

Re: New York Has a Great Subway, If You’re Not in a Wheelchair

#28

Post by codq »

astrodust wrote: post #18
covercash wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like this maybe? http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/23/korean-company-...

They investigated installing them here (Toronto) but the cost per station is pretty high, on the order of >$1M per platform. When you multiply that across a system as large as NYC that's easily half a billion dollars. I'm not sure how many ads you have to sell to recoup the cost, but it's probably a lot.

...maybe kick Melania and Barron out of NYC?
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