An article about how a UPenn professor influenced the MBTA's new accessiblity initiatives...
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2006/051106/research.html
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2006/051106/research.html
DudeUrSistersHot said:Awesome. That's most certainly $310 million dollars that could not possibly have gone to any better use then allowing .0001% of riders to not experience the inconvenience of having to be treated slightly different from everyone else.
DudeUrSistersHot said:Awesome. That's most certainly $310 million dollars that could not possibly have gone to any better use then allowing .0001% of riders to not experience the inconvenience of having to be treated slightly different from everyone else.
For 310 million they can hire private drivers to pick up/drop off the disabled for years to come.
lexicon506 said:That is a lot of money, and I feel just as strongly as everyone else that I would've liked to see it put to improving service, but we're talking human rights issues here. The MBTA did the right thing by making sure the disabled could use the T, even tough I doubt they wanted to. Everyone would be up in arms if the MBTA wasn't letting Koreans, for example, ride mass transit. People would say that is racist, unfair, and simply mean. This is the same situation. By not having ADA standard stations, the MBTA was, purposefully or not, singling out a minority of the population and not allowing them to ride the T. So what if it's .001% of people? They have just as much right as others to use mass transit. It's not like it's their fault that they're disabled. We have to remember that even tough they may be missing a couple of limbs here and there, they are people too.
I don't know if the way the MBTA handled this situation was the best way (maybe on-call private drivers really would have been better), but it is their duty as an organization that serves the public to include any and all races, classes, groups, etc. in its efforts to get people around.
DudeUrSistersHot said:lexicon506 said:That is a lot of money, and I feel just as strongly as everyone else that I would've liked to see it put to improving service, but we're talking human rights issues here. The MBTA did the right thing by making sure the disabled could use the T, even tough I doubt they wanted to. Everyone would be up in arms if the MBTA wasn't letting Koreans, for example, ride mass transit. People would say that is racist, unfair, and simply mean. This is the same situation. By not having ADA standard stations, the MBTA was, purposefully or not, singling out a minority of the population and not allowing them to ride the T. So what if it's .001% of people? They have just as much right as others to use mass transit. It's not like it's their fault that they're disabled. We have to remember that even tough they may be missing a couple of limbs here and there, they are people too.
I don't know if the way the MBTA handled this situation was the best way (maybe on-call private drivers really would have been better), but it is their duty as an organization that serves the public to include any and all races, classes, groups, etc. in its efforts to get people around.
Koreans don't require large fractions of a BILLION dollars worth of infrastructure investment to access mass transit. And no, the handicapped simply DON'T have as much right as everyone else to access it. They are handicapped. Handicapped people are different from other people and that fact needs to be recognized. They can't walk and therefore they can't do the same things that walking people can do. This fact needs to be accepted.
Ron Newman said:Accessibility improvements aren't just for 'handicapped' people. They're also for you with a stroller, you with a shopping cart, you with a bicycle, you with suitcases going to the airport, you with a broken leg and crutches, you when you just don't want to climb 35 steps at Charles station ....
bosdevelopment said:Ron Newman said:Accessibility improvements aren't just for 'handicapped' people. They're also for you with a stroller, you with a shopping cart, you with a bicycle, you with suitcases going to the airport, you with a broken leg and crutches, you when you just don't want to climb 35 steps at Charles station ....
If you have a stroller- Get some help carrying the stroller up/down stairs with some MBTA worker
If you have a Bicyle- You shouldn't be on the T anyway. They don't allow bikes on the Green line at least.
If you have suitcases going to the airport - If you have more than one suitcase take a cab. Even with all the escalators it's still tough to carry heavy bags around. I'm a big individual and I have trouble doing so, let alone a smaller guy or a woman.
If you have a shopping cart- Do they even allow shopping carts out of the supermarkets these days? Unless you have one of those pull carts escalators in place go far and above any help you'd ever need.
If you have a broken leg- Find another means of transportation for god's sake you cheap bastard. Even if you're "poor" and can't afford it what are you doing with a broken leg anyway? Get some help from an mbta worker. That's what they're paid for.
\bosdevelopment said:Ron Newman said:Accessibility improvements aren't just for 'handicapped' people. They're also for you with a stroller, you with a shopping cart, you with a bicycle, you with suitcases going to the airport, you with a broken leg and crutches, you when you just don't want to climb 35 steps at Charles station ....
If you have a stroller- Get some help carrying the stroller up/down stairs with some MBTA worker
If you have a Bicyle- You shouldn't be on the T anyway. They don't allow bikes on the Green line at least.
If you have suitcases going to the airport - If you have more than one suitcase take a cab. Even with all the escalators it's still tough to carry heavy bags around. I'm a big individual and I have trouble doing so, let alone a smaller guy or a woman.
If you have a shopping cart- Do they even allow shopping carts out of the supermarkets these days? Unless you have one of those pull carts escalators in place go far and above any help you'd ever need.
If you have a broken leg- Find another means of transportation for god's sake you cheap bastard. Even if you're "poor" and can't afford it what are you doing with a broken leg anyway? Get some help from an mbta worker. That's what they're paid for.