I have been using the Metro for many years, but I'm new to using a wheelchair. I've been feeling overwhelmed about how to get back out into the world -- the same world, but very different. This video is helpful to what I should expect when I venture out for the first time. Thank you so much for making this. The lack of elevator redundancy is a big issue that I hope they address asap.
A huge challenge for accessibility is way-finding. I noticed that a lot of times signs direct to stairs and escalators, and it is hard to figure out where the elevator is (if one exists). I would like to see more maps of stations where everything is clearly laid out.
Excellent study. It's important for planners to realize that improvements in accessibility make life easier for EVERYONE, not just for people with disabilities.
I live in Philadelphia and our rail transit both commuter train and city subway and trolley system has a way to go to be accessible to all. SEPTA has added elevators to many subway stations but as noted you may not know if they are working. If they break it takes them a long time to fix them. They have done a good job with access to the busses as most of the fleet is newer and incorporates a system to accommodate wheel chairs. However the trolleys are older design and are not accessible. They do plan to improve this when they get new vehicles but it may be years before this is improved. On the commuter rail side it also depends where you are going. The downtown stations have elevators but outlying stations that do not have high level platforms may not have wheel chair access. I use a cane to walk with and find the commuter trains hard to board if the station is not a high level platform. The steps to board the trains are steep and hard to go up or down safely. Thanks for bringing this issue to more exposure so it can be improved.
Those SEPTA trolleys are antiques now, dating from 1981-82. (Except for the line using refurbished 1947 trolleys!) They have a very good plan for full accessibility of the trolley system, but the key step is, they really really have to replace the actual trolley cars, and they have to replace them quite soon, before they just stop working from metal fatigue.
In the 1990s I attended several seminars about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The comments was NOT go with engineers, but first talk to the disability community. We were told of several example of this: First was a College that moved the buttons of its elevators to the rear of the elevators. The problem was most people in wheelchairs were taught to wheel in elevators backwards thus could not access the buttons of the elevators. Another example of talking to experts not to the disabled was when a College in the South installed MARBLE ramps next to its steps. The ramps became dangerous to wheelchair users in any rain, the marble with water was to slick for wheelchair users. Another example was the new office area for the Pennsylvanian General Assembly. The legislators wanted a thick carpet and a soft underlay so it be easy to walk on. The problem was the result was so soft you could not even push a person in a wheelchair over that carpet. On the other hand they talked about how the Sears Tower in Chicago made itself handicap accessible. Management went to the disability groups and ask what could be done. The groups made several suggestions, including having sticks at the receptionist into the building (The sticks was to aid people in wheelchairs by giving such wheelchair users the ability to reach the buttons on the elevators). Sears ended up spending less then $2000 to get the tower compliant with the ADA by talking to the disable and working with them. The other three examples had NOT talked to the disable and wasted millions of dollars that made things worse for the disabled. I am now wheelchair bound and found I prefer ramps to elevators. I use Pittsburgh Light Rail Vehicles (LRV) but get off at the station without an elevator if I can. I use a Mobility Scooter instead of a motorized wheelchair for it gives me more control. I try not to cross the tracks, for that causes pain but I do it when I have no other choice. In many ways I hate the elevators in the Downtown Pittsburgh LRV stations, they are clearly an afterthought, one stop I have to get on two different elevators to get out o the station and all of them are very small. My mobility scooter barely its in which means I have to take my time to get in or out of them. An extra foot or two would make it a lot easier to use. Just a comment that a lot of the problems with the disabled using public transit would be solved by just talking and working with the handicap community.
I believe Los Angeles' Metro Rail (light rail and subway) and Metrolink (commuter rail) are 100% fully accessible with no half assing or other compromises, mainly because the system is so new.
That's mostly correct. There's some half assing on Metrolink (bridgeplates and mini-highs) because it runs on very old railway lines shared with freight, but it's still basically fine. Metro is entirely modern construction.
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation, if trains and stations are fully accessible it makes life easier for all people. There are always times that people have luggage or a push chair where an elevator makes life a whole lot easier. Level boarding at stations makes life easier for everyone and removes a trip hazard. On the train where the ramp was used, it really would not require much to raise the platform height to erase any requirement to step up and then remove the requirement for the ramp. It was really appreciated that personal testimony was given in this broadcast.
The MARC penn line really needs improvement. Using the NEC is nice for the infrastructure, but the penn line doesn't utilize it as well as it should. Using the ramp shouldn't need to be necessary with high platform stations and the frequency span is underwhelming considering it's the only link to BWI (apart from the totally inaccessible and equally infrequent/poor span 201 commuter bus).
In the US, that is the correct rule of thumb -- the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required that any federally funded metro construction in the US be accessible. NYC Subway managed to break the law, but everyone else followed the law. There were a few stations built without federal funding between then and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (which required that non-federally-funded metro construction be accessible too), but not many. However, many places used some rather dopey solutions during the 1970s and 1980s -- manually cranked lifts, stuff like that -- and most of that has to be redone with proper level boarding.
@loginssuckx3 thank you for telling me however for New York City you are looking at the December 1988 opened Archer Ave line and December 1989 63rd St lines which were ADA accessible from opening. If you want to use the New York City example anything opened or built before the Archer Ave & 63rd St lines 1988-1989 will not be accessible from day one but after those lines accessible from day one.
@@EpicThe112 The dozen stations built completely from scratch in NYC starting wtih the Archer Ave. line are accessible... But many NYC stations which were torn out and rebuilt aren't. And they're supposed to be, according to the ADA. Every other system in the country made stations compliant when they were closed and rebuilt from the ground up (staircases torn out, entrances relocated, etc), because that's the law. NYC often did not. This is why nearly every other system is quite close to complete accessibility, compared to NYC -- because over the last 50 years, most stations have had major renovations, and everywhere *except* NYC, major renovation ==> ADA accessibility.
Excellent video. I will share it. A quick note about commuter rail: Close to 90% of the (New York) Long Island Rail Road is ADA compliant; Grand Central Madison is expected to open this month will obviously be ADA compliant; additional stations will undergo construction this year to bring them to compliance. About 70-75% of the Metro-North Commuter Railroad's stations are accessible, with three more being upgraded starting this year. The new branch of the New Haven Line serving the East Bronx will offer four new ADA compliant stations, which will open in a few years. And lastly, AirTrain to Kennedy Airport is ADA compliant.
As a civil engineer designing transit systems I would like to try and make this series required watching for my field. Keep this series up, I think this is great
Nice video, Caleb. The lack of accessibility on transit systems is an issue that needs more attention. First-person narration is a very innovative and effective way of doing it. I'm lucky to live in Vancouver, BC, where the transit system -- bus, SkyTrain, and Seabus -- is fully accessible (although I know of some inaccessible bus stops). Definitely worth checking out if you're up this way.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Zach Hasn't Made A New Video In Like 4 Months. Which Brings Me To My Question:Do You Think Zach's Gonna Do Nashville First Or Detroit First? Cause As We All Know,I Requested Them, And They're Long Overdue.
I would LOVE to live in a big city with a metro system because I’m so sick of trying to bum rides off of people. I want the history. I want the culture and I want the availability to do whatever the hell I want when I want! My first choice was New York, New York, I spent a week there it requires further investigation but that particular week I had lower income so I had to find lodging out in Brooklyn and let me tell you that was miserable. Trying to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan or anywhere. There are no apps that give you handicap accessible directions. I’ve traveled all over Europe and I’ve used Google maps and it will tell me which train stations are handicap accessible, but for some reason domestically it won’t do that. Would definitely be my second choice because I am a military brat, and I do love historical history, which is probably a stupid thing to say but I really don’t know I wanna be around that kind of politics constantly
I wonder how many transit cities in the US/Canada have accessible Subway, commuter rail, tram, streetcar, and BRT systems? I would like to know and so everybody else.
I’m pretty sure most urban transit is accessible in Canada. Every bus lowers to curb level and has a ramp to bridge the gap, trams and lrt have ramps and/or level platforms and subways all have level boarding. The only issue is lack of elevators in some downtown stations and lack of consistent level boarding on older commuter rail services and intercity rail. On top of that, the buses have removable seats for disabled people and so do the trains and trams. All vehicles have open concept designs and are much easier to navigate than the American ones.
I have a complete set of information on this. Everything built after roughly 1990-1993 is ADA-compliant and "fully accessible" but some are better than others (some used really questionable approaches to accessibility, and I'm keeping track of those -- that's you, Denver, with your high-internal-floor light rail with low platforms and mini-highs). The systems built before 1993 are all *partially* accessible and I keep track of all of them. So you know: NYC Subway is by FAR the worst, much much worse than any other system by orders of magnitude. They've actually violated the ADA repeatedly, criminally, for no reason except malice, with plenty of money available for compliance. This may have changed with recent changes in management in the last two years and a binding ADA lawsuit settlement agreement but... we'll see. Amtrak is pretty bad but is trying, on a shoestring budget. Pittsburgh and Cleveland streetcar / light rail systems are also operating on starvation budgets and are doing better than Amtrak. Of the pre-1993 systems, Boston MBTA is by far the best: they have had an active program of retrofits which has made huge progress. They still have to redo a whole bunch of the older parts of the Green Line (streetcar subway) and their commuter rail but they're working on it. Chicago CTA is also moving beyond minimum ADA requirements and has a program to upgrade all stations. I suppose I should make this into some sort of survey article or something. Right now the info is something I have, keep track of, and share with friends occasionally
@@lemonade4181 I know this one. The Toronto (TTC) system is mostly not accessible but is required to rebuild all their stations by 2025 (a deadline they will miss, but they'll come close). GO Transit, Toronto commuter rail, has three inaccessible stations, which again are required to be rebuilt by 2025, and they'll probably miss the deadline on one of them. The Montreal Metro is mostly not accessible, and (dammit Quebec!) is not legally required to be. "Exo" (Montreal commuter rail) is much like US commuter rail, partly inaccessible, and where it is accessible, accessible by hokey ad-hoc methods. The newest lines, however, are accessible. VIA Rail (intercity rail in Canada) is similar. Every other urban rail system in Canada (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary) was built much more recently and so is basically accessible.
@@loginssuckx3 From my knowledge and experience all of the non-mainline rail vehicles in Canada are accessible but some of the core stations aren’t. Buses are a lot more heavily used in Canada than in the USA and systems like the TTC actually see more bus riders than subway riders so it’s good to see that they are very accessible.
@@lemonade4181 Almost all buses are accessible in both Canada and the US now. Intercity is usually wheelchair lifts; in-town is usually level boarding, low-floor. I'm actually quite impressed with Ontario. The subway and streetcars are going to be fully accessible around 2025; it might take a couple more years but they'll be close. (As noted Ottawa is already accessible, and so are new systems in Hamilton, etc.) Quebec is not so good, mostly because they don't appear to have any legal requirement to retrofit the Montreal Metro at all.
This is great Caleb. Thanks for bringing accessibility into the transit discourse. I hope to work with you more in the future.
I have been using the Metro for many years, but I'm new to using a wheelchair. I've been feeling overwhelmed about how to get back out into the world -- the same world, but very different. This video is helpful to what I should expect when I venture out for the first time. Thank you so much for making this.
The lack of elevator redundancy is a big issue that I hope they address asap.
A huge challenge for accessibility is way-finding. I noticed that a lot of times signs direct to stairs and escalators, and it is hard to figure out where the elevator is (if one exists). I would like to see more maps of stations where everything is clearly laid out.
Excellent study. It's important for planners to realize that improvements in accessibility make life easier for EVERYONE, not just for people with disabilities.
As a disabled person myself, this would be an interesting series
I live in Philadelphia and our rail transit both commuter train and city subway and trolley system has a way to go to be accessible to all. SEPTA has added elevators to many subway stations but as noted you may not know if they are working. If they break it takes them a long time to fix them. They have done a good job with access to the busses as most of the fleet is newer and incorporates a system to accommodate wheel chairs. However the trolleys are older design and are not accessible. They do plan to improve this when they get new vehicles but it may be years before this is improved. On the commuter rail side it also depends where you are going. The downtown stations have elevators but outlying stations that do not have high level platforms may not have wheel chair access. I use a cane to walk with and find the commuter trains hard to board if the station is not a high level platform. The steps to board the trains are steep and hard to go up or down safely. Thanks for bringing this issue to more exposure so it can be improved.
Those SEPTA trolleys are antiques now, dating from 1981-82. (Except for the line using refurbished 1947 trolleys!) They have a very good plan for full accessibility of the trolley system, but the key step is, they really really have to replace the actual trolley cars, and they have to replace them quite soon, before they just stop working from metal fatigue.
In the 1990s I attended several seminars about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The comments was NOT go with engineers, but first talk to the disability community. We were told of several example of this:
First was a College that moved the buttons of its elevators to the rear of the elevators. The problem was most people in wheelchairs were taught to wheel in elevators backwards thus could not access the buttons of the elevators.
Another example of talking to experts not to the disabled was when a College in the South installed MARBLE ramps next to its steps. The ramps became dangerous to wheelchair users in any rain, the marble with water was to slick for wheelchair users.
Another example was the new office area for the Pennsylvanian General Assembly. The legislators wanted a thick carpet and a soft underlay so it be easy to walk on. The problem was the result was so soft you could not even push a person in a wheelchair over that carpet.
On the other hand they talked about how the Sears Tower in Chicago made itself handicap accessible. Management went to the disability groups and ask what could be done. The groups made several suggestions, including having sticks at the receptionist into the building (The sticks was to aid people in wheelchairs by giving such wheelchair users the ability to reach the buttons on the elevators). Sears ended up spending less then $2000 to get the tower compliant with the ADA by talking to the disable and working with them. The other three examples had NOT talked to the disable and wasted millions of dollars that made things worse for the disabled.
I am now wheelchair bound and found I prefer ramps to elevators. I use Pittsburgh Light Rail Vehicles (LRV) but get off at the station without an elevator if I can. I use a Mobility Scooter instead of a motorized wheelchair for it gives me more control. I try not to cross the tracks, for that causes pain but I do it when I have no other choice. In many ways I hate the elevators in the Downtown Pittsburgh LRV stations, they are clearly an afterthought, one stop I have to get on two different elevators to get out o the station and all of them are very small. My mobility scooter barely its in which means I have to take my time to get in or out of them. An extra foot or two would make it a lot easier to use.
Just a comment that a lot of the problems with the disabled using public transit would be solved by just talking and working with the handicap community.
I believe Los Angeles' Metro Rail (light rail and subway) and Metrolink (commuter rail) are 100% fully accessible with no half assing or other compromises, mainly because the system is so new.
That's mostly correct. There's some half assing on Metrolink (bridgeplates and mini-highs) because it runs on very old railway lines shared with freight, but it's still basically fine. Metro is entirely modern construction.
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation, if trains and stations are fully accessible it makes life easier for all people. There are always times that people have luggage or a push chair where an elevator makes life a whole lot easier. Level boarding at stations makes life easier for everyone and removes a trip hazard. On the train where the ramp was used, it really would not require much to raise the platform height to erase any requirement to step up and then remove the requirement for the ramp. It was really appreciated that personal testimony was given in this broadcast.
Thanks for this, Caleb. Your best work so far.
The MARC penn line really needs improvement. Using the NEC is nice for the infrastructure, but the penn line doesn't utilize it as well as it should. Using the ramp shouldn't need to be necessary with high platform stations and the frequency span is underwhelming considering it's the only link to BWI (apart from the totally inaccessible and equally infrequent/poor span 201 commuter bus).
Interesting video and the rule of thumb might be this for any Metro system built in the 1970s onwards they would seem to be accessible from day one
In the US, that is the correct rule of thumb -- the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required that any federally funded metro construction in the US be accessible.
NYC Subway managed to break the law, but everyone else followed the law. There were a few stations built without federal funding between then and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (which required that non-federally-funded metro construction be accessible too), but not many.
However, many places used some rather dopey solutions during the 1970s and 1980s -- manually cranked lifts, stuff like that -- and most of that has to be redone with proper level boarding.
@loginssuckx3 thank you for telling me however for New York City you are looking at the December 1988 opened Archer Ave line and December 1989 63rd St lines which were ADA accessible from opening. If you want to use the New York City example anything opened or built before the Archer Ave & 63rd St lines 1988-1989 will not be accessible from day one but after those lines accessible from day one.
@@EpicThe112 The dozen stations built completely from scratch in NYC starting wtih the Archer Ave. line are accessible...
But many NYC stations which were torn out and rebuilt aren't. And they're supposed to be, according to the ADA. Every other system in the country made stations compliant when they were closed and rebuilt from the ground up (staircases torn out, entrances relocated, etc), because that's the law. NYC often did not.
This is why nearly every other system is quite close to complete accessibility, compared to NYC -- because over the last 50 years, most stations have had major renovations, and everywhere *except* NYC, major renovation ==> ADA accessibility.
With all The maintenance issues, it must be very difficult for people with disabilities
Excellent video. I will share it. A quick note about commuter rail: Close to 90% of the (New York) Long Island Rail Road is ADA compliant; Grand Central Madison is expected to open this month will obviously be ADA compliant; additional stations will undergo construction this year to bring them to compliance. About 70-75% of the Metro-North Commuter Railroad's stations are accessible, with three more being upgraded starting this year. The new branch of the New Haven Line serving the East Bronx will offer four new ADA compliant stations, which will open in a few years. And lastly, AirTrain to Kennedy Airport is ADA compliant.
As a civil engineer designing transit systems I would like to try and make this series required watching for my field. Keep this series up, I think this is great
Nice video, Caleb. The lack of accessibility on transit systems is an issue that needs more attention. First-person narration is a very innovative and effective way of doing it. I'm lucky to live in Vancouver, BC, where the transit system -- bus, SkyTrain, and Seabus -- is fully accessible (although I know of some inaccessible bus stops). Definitely worth checking out if you're up this way.
The disadvantage of WMATA elevators is people using them as a toilet, smell of urine reeks.
fantastic, looking forward to more!
Great piece, broadened my perspectives. Can't wait for the rest of the series.
thank you that was very helpful!
We might not even need conductors like Madrid's regional rail with level boarding, but that system has fare machines at all stations, core or not
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Zach Hasn't Made A New Video In Like 4 Months. Which Brings Me To My Question:Do You Think Zach's Gonna Do Nashville First Or Detroit First? Cause As We All Know,I Requested Them, And They're Long Overdue.
I would LOVE to live in a big city with a metro system because I’m so sick of trying to bum rides off of people. I want the history. I want the culture and I want the availability to do whatever the hell I want when I want! My first choice was New York, New York, I spent a week there it requires further investigation but that particular week I had lower income so I had to find lodging out in Brooklyn and let me tell you that was miserable. Trying to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan or anywhere. There are no apps that give you handicap accessible directions. I’ve traveled all over Europe and I’ve used Google maps and it will tell me which train stations are handicap accessible, but for some reason domestically it won’t do that. Would definitely be my second choice because I am a military brat, and I do love historical history, which is probably a stupid thing to say but I really don’t know I wanna be around that kind of politics constantly
I’m in a wheelchair. I gotta be pretty drunk to take my chair on an escalator. Especially With me in it
I wonder how many transit cities in the US/Canada have accessible Subway, commuter rail, tram, streetcar, and BRT systems? I would like to know and so everybody else.
I’m pretty sure most urban transit is accessible in Canada. Every bus lowers to curb level and has a ramp to bridge the gap, trams and lrt have ramps and/or level platforms and subways all have level boarding. The only issue is lack of elevators in some downtown stations and lack of consistent level boarding on older commuter rail services and intercity rail. On top of that, the buses have removable seats for disabled people and so do the trains and trams. All vehicles have open concept designs and are much easier to navigate than the American ones.
I have a complete set of information on this. Everything built after roughly 1990-1993 is ADA-compliant and "fully accessible" but some are better than others (some used really questionable approaches to accessibility, and I'm keeping track of those -- that's you, Denver, with your high-internal-floor light rail with low platforms and mini-highs).
The systems built before 1993 are all *partially* accessible and I keep track of all of them.
So you know: NYC Subway is by FAR the worst, much much worse than any other system by orders of magnitude. They've actually violated the ADA repeatedly, criminally, for no reason except malice, with plenty of money available for compliance. This may have changed with recent changes in management in the last two years and a binding ADA lawsuit settlement agreement but... we'll see.
Amtrak is pretty bad but is trying, on a shoestring budget.
Pittsburgh and Cleveland streetcar / light rail systems are also operating on starvation budgets and are doing better than Amtrak.
Of the pre-1993 systems, Boston MBTA is by far the best: they have had an active program of retrofits which has made huge progress. They still have to redo a whole bunch of the older parts of the Green Line (streetcar subway) and their commuter rail but they're working on it.
Chicago CTA is also moving beyond minimum ADA requirements and has a program to upgrade all stations.
I suppose I should make this into some sort of survey article or something. Right now the info is something I have, keep track of, and share with friends occasionally
@@lemonade4181 I know this one. The Toronto (TTC) system is mostly not accessible but is required to rebuild all their stations by 2025 (a deadline they will miss, but they'll come close). GO Transit, Toronto commuter rail, has three inaccessible stations, which again are required to be rebuilt by 2025, and they'll probably miss the deadline on one of them.
The Montreal Metro is mostly not accessible, and (dammit Quebec!) is not legally required to be.
"Exo" (Montreal commuter rail) is much like US commuter rail, partly inaccessible, and where it is accessible, accessible by hokey ad-hoc methods. The newest lines, however, are accessible. VIA Rail (intercity rail in Canada) is similar.
Every other urban rail system in Canada (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary) was built much more recently and so is basically accessible.
@@loginssuckx3 From my knowledge and experience all of the non-mainline rail vehicles in Canada are accessible but some of the core stations aren’t. Buses are a lot more heavily used in Canada than in the USA and systems like the TTC actually see more bus riders than subway riders so it’s good to see that they are very accessible.
@@lemonade4181 Almost all buses are accessible in both Canada and the US now. Intercity is usually wheelchair lifts; in-town is usually level boarding, low-floor.
I'm actually quite impressed with Ontario. The subway and streetcars are going to be fully accessible around 2025; it might take a couple more years but they'll be close. (As noted Ottawa is already accessible, and so are new systems in Hamilton, etc.)
Quebec is not so good, mostly because they don't appear to have any legal requirement to retrofit the Montreal Metro at all.
Can I use this for my own channel? Obviously not verbatim. I started making urbanism videos with a focus on accessibility.
Shoot me an email
good video
✌🏾
Wow. The wimpiness here is off the scale! 😂
How so?
Wimpiness?! For a grown man to be acting like a child.. you're clowning yourself 💀. You wouldn't last a day if the roles were reversed