Op-ed originally published on the NY Daily News.
A New York City MTA Access-A-Ride vehicle
The MTA board voted Wednesday to raise bus and subway fares by 15 cents or a reasonable 5.4%. The board also benevolently agreed to make five bus routes — one per borough — free! However, the MTA has decided that some disabled riders need to pay more — much, much more for a typical fare. Participants in what had been an innovative pilot program offered by the authority’s Access-A-Ride (AAR) service, which serves disabled riders, are facing an incredible 45% increase in their fare in August. Does anyone at the MTA really think that charging an already marginalized group of citizens more — for less — will increase access and equity?
As a blind New Yorker who’s been using AAR since 2003, I know first-hand that the current state of paratransit service is abysmal. Traditional AAR service does not allow individuals with disabilities the same level of spontaneous and flexible access to our city that straphangers typically enjoy.
Having to schedule trips before 5 p.m. a day (or two) in advance, enduring late pickups, and the ever-looming potential for a leisurely three-hour tour of the five boroughs make traditional AAR arduous and exhausting to use. Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to have to say to colleagues — or worse yet, to a superior! — “Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t stay late for that meeting (or help with that project) because my Access-A-Ride is coming.” Is it fair that an AAR user might have to turn down overtime pay because they have already booked an AAR trip? If the user then decides to take the opportunity and cancel their pre-scheduled trip, they are penalized for the “late cancellation.” Is that equity? Frankly, it’s infuriating.
In 2017, I joined AAR’s on-demand e-hail pilot program which allows booking trips through a smartphone app. With the ability to book reliable trips on an as-needed basis, I felt comfortable taking an itinerant special education supervisory position with the public schools. This position requires me to travel extensively across multiple boroughs on a regular basis. The on-demand e-hail program facilitated the spontaneous flexibility necessary to perform this rewarding work.
Now, instead of expanding genuine on-demand access to a larger number of AAR customers, the MTA plans to add users — while imposing severe restrictions. The proposal is that service be restricted to either 25 rides per month with a subsidized cap of $40 per ride or 40 rides per month with a subsidized cap of $25 per ride. This is less than one round trip per day. The customer would be expected to pay an up-front $4 base fare, plus any remaining amount over the subsidy.
What that means is that many of the rides many of us take for work would no longer cost a typical transit fare, but instead cost whatever amount exceeded the MTA’s arbitrary cap. This essentially renders the e-hail program useless. The MTA has attributed these proposed changes to budgetary concerns, but those concerns apparently didn’t apply to other new MTA programs. In fact, the restrictions mean they won’t be spending a penny more on this program than they were before — in spite of the demonstrated value of the pilot in increasing employment among disabled New Yorkers.
This life-changing program has allowed us to live our lives with the same autonomy and dignity as every other New Yorker. These proposed life-limiting changes are further disabling and detrimental to the success of our community. Capping the subsidy for a ride unduly penalizes those of us that live in the outer boroughs and need to travel longer distances. Does government “cap” any other basic service such as law enforcement or sanitation? Your building is using up too much of the budget, so you only get trash pickup every two weeks?
MTA Chair Janno Lieber, let’s work towards a reasonable compromise, rather than destroy an excellent program that actually leveled the playing field. Individuals with disabilities make viable economic and social contributions. These contributions are dependent on our independence and our freedom to move around this city at will, just as any other citizen can. Unfortunately, the MTA board and management have decided that disabled citizens are not entitled to this. Why?
Is it equitable to require a person to live life in a predetermined and scheduled fashion, with no room for spontaneity or flexibility, solely because they have a disability? Disability should never be mistaken for inability. We want and deserve equity! We want and deserve a fair fare for a fair ride.
Pedulla is a supervisor for Educational Vision Services at New York City Public Schools as well as a member of the Advisory Committee on Transit Accessibility, these opinions are his and do not represent these organizations.