Elevators Down, Barriers Up: Why NYC's Subway Fails Disabled Riders
- Sophia Greene
- Jan 1, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 18
Every morning, as many New Yorkers do, Chris Pangilinan, an urban planner and disability rights advocate, browses the MTA website, hoping for a seamless subway commute. However, the website is often inaccurate in relaying a critical detail for Pangilinan’s trip: whether the station has working elevators that can accommodate his wheelchair.
While the website lists broken elevators, many disabled New Yorkers complain that elevator outages are not posted online promptly, leaving them stranded at ‘out of order’ signs. Pangilinan knows this frustration well. In October of 2019, ironically while headed to deliver an accessibility talk, he tweeted: “This is a really bad look @NYCTSubway...Times Square Q elevator out for no apparent reason and not reported online.” Unfortunately, this is not a rarity for disabled New Yorkers. “I encounter a broken elevator at least once or twice a week,” Pangilinan told me.
Furthermore, functional elevators are not well maintained. A recent study found that four out of every ten subway elevators have a noticeably unpleasant odor, with urine being the most common.
Aside from poor elevator conditions and outages, another issue is the lack of elevators in many subway stations. Only about 24% of the 472 subway stations contain elevators. For Pangilinan, who moved back to New York City three months ago, being near an accessible station was a major concern. “I had to look at apartments that were near a subway station that is accessible,” he said, something that significantly limited his options.
Further limiting is navigating life through a roadmap of accessible stations, putting a damper on otherwise exciting life events. “If I am going to a friend’s birthday party or just meeting friends at a restaurant, I have to make sure that I am near an accessible station,” he stated, admitting that this causes him to “not make it [to major events] sometimes.” According to a cross-sectional study published in the Disability and Health Journal, this correlation between physical inaccessibility and disabled individuals not having the ability to be as socially connected causes loneliness, which in turn may lead to significant health consequences. Chronic loneliness can increase risks of sleep disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.
NYC's inaccessibility stands out compared to other U.S. cities, which are adding elevators, improving maintenance, and providing real-time outage updates. Having lived in San Francisco (and taken advantage of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART) before he initially moved to New York in 2014, Pangilinan describes his first experiences on the subway as “a big shock.” He was highly impressed with BART from an accessibility perspective: “They respond to the community well and do a good job on updating you on which elevators are not working and maintaining them,” he tells me. This is shown by BART officials’ response to complaints about uncleanliness in elevators by staffing them (a change that Pangilinan notes is especially noticeable on Market Street). Boston’s MBTA has undergone similar changes and has added new elevators since Pangilinan’s first visit eighteen years ago. The improvements that these cities have made, and the established culture of accessibility diverge significantly from New York’s subway system, where Pangilinan attests that “the bare minimum was being done” to meet accessibility standards.
With the subway system not being a viable option for many disabled individuals due to the reasons discussed above, many resort to alternative forms of transportation, which are less time efficient and more financially straining. Not having elevators in her nearest subway station, sixteen-year-old advocate of intersectional disability justice and policy change, Isabel Mavrides-Calderon, has long been faced with this predicament: brave the subway stairs and risk worsening her spinal injury or overspend on other transportation services. “It has made me avoid taking the subway more times than not, which means spending money that I shouldn’t have to on cabs,” Calderon tells me. Prices for Uber are especially high in New York right now as curfews have been lifted, up by over 50% of pre-pandemic rates. These costs hit disabled New Yorkers hardest, as their unemployment rate is nearly eight percent higher, partly due to discrimination and systemic ableism.
However, while acknowledging the imperfections of the MTA, Pangilinan points out that much progress has been made under new authority during the last three years: “I am hopeful that the current leadership team is recognizing the importance of accessibility,” he tells me. The creation of a new top-level position, Chief Accessibility Officer, in February of 2021, is one sign of this change. The position is filled by Quemuel Arroyo, the former head of accessibility at the NYC Department of Transportation and a wheelchair user. The inclusion of a disabled individual in making decisions that directly affect the disabled population is something that activists like Calderon have long been fighting for: “disabled people with a variety of different disabilities need to help approve the plan,” she writes in a recent Instagram post.
One of Arroyo’s hopes for the subway system is to find alternatives to elevators that do not have the same risk of constantly breaking, like ramps. Under Arroyo’s leadership, many hope for a more reliable and affordable alternative to the subway system. A previous failed attempt at this was the implementation of Access-A-Ride paratransit (nicknamed “Stress-A-Ride”), which Pangilinan believes could have been successful if it were “easier, dependable, and more relevant.” Its fault is in the execution, which is apparent based on its many one-star Yelp reviews. “Why is it that the drivers are always late?” asks one user, “They said they will show up and NEVER do,” complains another.
“It comes down to attitude and culture of accessibility at an organization,” Pangilinan states, “It boils down to making it a priority.”
The MTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.