But even as the budget ax falls, disabled riders will continue to benefit from long-term technological and capital improvements that make the system more accessible.
Bailon of the Bronx is a power-wheelchair user and transit safety advocate who takes buses, subways and Access-A-Ride vehicles to athletic activities, to see family and friends and, occasionally, to attend public hearings—where she tells the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) about accessibility challenges she experiences while traveling.
While traveling, Bailon worries about getting the back wheel of her power chair stuck in the gaps between train platforms and subway cars, being stranded on subway platforms when elevators break down and being pushed onto the tracks or dragged by doors that close before she has fully entered the train.
"A lot of disabled riders don't want to take the subway because, although it's faster, it's scary. In an emergency, how are you going to get out?" Bailon says.
Some of Bailon's worries are alleviated by the MTA's designated boarding areas on subway platforms, which instruct people with disabilities to board near a conductor. However, when platforms are crowded, Bailon says she has difficulty getting there.
"Wherever the elevator leaves me, that's where I stay during rush hour, because it's very crowded," Bailon says.
The MTA cuts will reduce weekend service frequency to accommodate construction on 11 subway lines, including the D train, which Bailon uses often. That will mean longer waits and larger passenger crowds.
The changes also include the elimination of 33 bus routes and the restructuring of dozens more. The MTA has backtracked on plans to restructure the Bx15 that Bailon takes frequently to the nearest wheelchair-accessible subway station, the 149th Street-Grand Concourse stop on the 2, 4 and 5 trains. However, the MTA will use the Bx15 to absorb riders from the Bx55, which will lose late evening and weekend service.
The cuts are designed to save $93 million per year, a fraction of the MTA's $778 million budget shortfall.
"Maybe you wonder why I go out, with all the trouble. Like I say, disabled people have things to do, people to see and places to go, and we want to have fun too," Bailon says.
The bus cuts are particularly troublesome to people with disabilities, many of whom rely on buses more often than subways.
Transit riders with disabilities and the city's 60,000 non-disabled seniors will also be hurt by cuts to the Access-A-Ride service, which provides shared-ride van and car trips to people who are unable to use buses and subways because of a disability. The MTA aims to reduce Access-A-Ride service by 783,000 trips per year.
Most of the reductions will come through an initiative to replace 12 percent of door-to-door trips with a limited service that takes customers who are able to use buses and trains to the nearest accessible station rather than their destination. The MTA will also change the way it assesses the transit needs of customers whose disabilities make travel more difficult in hot or cold temperatures. Rather than designating customer eligibility based on season, the MTA will check the temperature to determine whether callers should receive the ride they request.
