accessibility_fail | (no subject)

(no subject)

a sign that tells people that need wheelchairs to use another station - from May until August

Yes, that does say from May 4 to late August, the station will not be accessible. I was generally impressed by the accessibility of San Francisco's public transit, but this is Not Cool. The nearest station is 0.7 miles away. Accessibility of transit: fail.

ETA: I have been informed in comments that BART is generally quite good, considering their budget constraints, so consider my objections retracted.

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How would you have suggested they handle the lift upgrade differently? I'm not really sure what they could have done.

They did, at least, show other options.

Possibly take less time about it? Working around it for a month, I can understand. But is there any reason it should take the entire summer?

It might also might make sense to stagger upgrades - I may be nuts, but I think I recall more than one elevator per station. So, upgrade one at a time so that the station remains accessible.

Possibly take less time about it?

Well, yes, I had considered that, but I figured they're not taking time just to take time, and that that was the amount of time they figured they'd need (for whatever reasons) and that if they had been able to do so faster, they would have. Maybe I'm naive that way.

But is there any reason it should take the entire summer?

I have no idea how much work there is to be done or how easy it is to coordinate multiple parties, if more than one company has to do work.

As far as I've seen, the reason some stations have multiple elevators is that those are the ones where there are separate platforms for each direction/line, and you can't cross the tracks. Thus, if one elevator is out of order, you still can't get to the platform it serves. Embarcadero only has one platform for all lines and directions, so it only has one elevator.

I will say that BART is good about alerting riders when the elevators are out of order. They make regular announcements about elevator status over the PA system and the scrolling signs, including "all's well" when all elevators are working.

Ideally there would be multiple elevators for each platform so they would always (or almost always!) be accessible. Unfortunately BART's budget is really lacking right now, so don't hold your breath for enhancements. :(

My objections are retracted, then. It sounds like BART is doing the best they can as far as accessibility, and that's certainly more than many agencies do.

I think they do their best. Your frustration is totally understandable either way!

San Francisco's public transportation is LIGHTYEARS ahead of most of the other systems in the country when it comes to accessibility. That's one elevator down for rehab, as opposed to NYC where there are still barely a third (if that!) of all the stations in the system with any elevators at all.

I wonder if there's a mandatory testing time for elevators like there is for new light rail lines here (where they have to run the line like it was in normal operation for ~1mo without passengers)

When the DC Metro has this kind of issue, there's a shuttle service running from at least on adjacent stop.

The trick is to check their website ahead of time, because hearing the announcements in the stations is difficult.

I was about to mention that. On Metro you can get a free shuttle to/from one or two designated nearby stations when the elevators are broken.

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