Sunday, October 30, 2011

Suit to Add Handicapped-Accessible Cabs Unfar?

An even louder Bronx cheer, wetter raspberries and razzing, and an even smellier fart are directed in Bloomberg's general direction. I posted about this earlier in NYC Taxis Inaccessible! Shame on you, Bloomberg!.

Bloomberg says suit to add handicapped-accessible cabs unfair to 'average' riders, wastes gas, money

You have GOT to be kidding me, Mr. Mayor B! Unfair to average riders, wastes gas and money, and...

Disabled-friendly cabs are a health hazard, would cause injuries & spark lawsuits, mayor says

...a hazard? Hazard to WHO? Yourself? You have more to worry about hubcaps coming off other cars and them spraying water on you than a wheelchair user lobbing a golf ball-sized water balloon at you using a rubber band slingshot. YOU yourself can be a rider of the subways, as many officials, even mayors and related public officials, have been known to do.

Have you even ridden in one of those wheelchair-friendly cabs? Have you even spent time in the DC area seeing how the paratransit system and accessible cabs work? Have you even talked to the owners of those cabs to see if they really are hazardous? Have you been in a modified wheelchair-accessible van driven by a wheelchair user? I DON'T THINK SO. YOU can try riding these things not just once, but multiple times. I've been there, done that.

How about making the ENTIRE NYC subway system accessible, adding elevators and escalators? Adding newer accessible vans would be much cheaper than the huge bill of retrofitting the entire NYC subway system. But yep, looks like they're doing some accessibility work here and there, with 89 out of 468 accessible stations.

MTA Guide to Accessible Transit