These Subway Stops Should Get Elevators Now, Advocates Say

NEW YORK — Making New York City's subway system more accessible could be as easy as following a map, transit advocates say. The advocacy group TransitCenter unveiled a new subway map on Thursday identifying the next 50 subway stops where the MTA should add elevators and make other accessibility fixes by 2024.

The MTA's Fast Forward plan would make more than 50 new stations accessible within five years. But it's incumbent upon the state Legislature to fund the plan and lighten the burden on disabled riders, advocates and lawmakers argue.

"Our map is a vision of a more accessible New York City," Colin Wright, a senior advocacy associate at TransitCenter, said in a statement. "New Yorkers will only get a subway map like this if the legislature and Governor Cuomo fund Fast Forward with congestion pricing and other revenue sources beginning this year."

The clamor for subway accessibility grew louder this week after the death of Malaysia Goodson. The 22-year-old mom died after falling down the stairs of a Midtown station while carrying her 1-year-old daughter in a stroller. The city's chief medical examiner said her death appeared related to a pre-existing medical condition.

About three quarters of the city's 472 subway stations lack elevators, making them inaccessible to disabled riders and tough to navigate for seniors and parents with strollers. Upgrading all the stops on TransitCenter's map would more than triple the potential trips riders could make using accessible stations, the group says.

TransitCenter picked stations based on a range of criteria, primarily their proximity to major express stations and subway and bus transfer points.

The analysis also incorporated census data on poverty and the population density for people with disabilities; Access-A-Ride usage data; and the proximity to naturally occurring retirement communities, business districts, museums and other important sites.

Annual ridership served as a tiebreaker for competing nearby stations, but the relative cost and complexity of making a stop accessible was not a factor, TransitCenter says.

The map includes 16 stations in Manhattan, 18 in Brooklyn, eight in Queens and eight in The Bronx. Seven of the stops are already partially accessible, the map shows.

New York City Transit President Andy Byford has prioritized accessibility in his yearlong tenure. Byford hired the MTA's first-ever accessibility chief last year, and his Fast Forward plan would ultimately make more than 180 stations accessible within a decade. But the plan could have a roughly $40 billion price tag and has not yet been funded.

Some lawmakers praised TransitCenter's map as a good starting point for the MTA's accessibility efforts.

"We are woefully far from ensuring that all New Yorkers have the ability to join the huddled masses of our subway cars each day," state Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said in a statement. "As recent news lays bare, the consequences of our inaction are not measured in inconvenience and tardiness, but by life and death."

An MTA spokesman did not respond to Patch's request for comment on the map Thursday afternoon.

See TransitCenter's map here.

(Lead image: TransitCenter created this map of stations where it thinks the MTA should make accessibility upgrades. Image courtesy of TransitCenter)