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Once the suit was settled it was important to make sure that real change was not only
possible, but certain.
Yes things have definitely changed.
We've had some big changes as a result of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit really helped convince people at the higher levels to focus some more
attention on accessibility and really attend to the recommendations and make some
changes to improve our system.
Progress on compliance with the settlement directives has been progressing -
sometimes with amazing results.
A prime example of this is elevator availability - that is the percentage of time that
subway elevators are working or available to get people from street level to platform level.
In 2005 real problems had given the authority a bad reputation.
When I first got here, in fact on my very first day coming to work, there were several
minute long report, which is a long time on radio, interviewing people who had
troubles getting stuck in elevators, elevators weren't available, they were showing
up at stations and have to get back on board and to other stations, it was a mess.
Availability at that time was at certain instances and certain times in the high 80's
low 90's.
So like you said, it didn't work, it means a lot of equipment was down for periods
of time.
With a new sense of enablement, and Collaboration among all involved - the MBTA,
the vendor who held the maintenance contracts and with end users of the system,
available has now skyrocketed.
Right now in the new contract we are running a average monthly availability of 99.7 %
- say that again, 99.7% Oh that is hard to believe from were you come from.
It is almost, I wouldn't wan to say miraculous, but it is something that I don't think
anyone at the time would honestly believed would have been possible.
With the elevators humming along there were still enormous problems that had to
be addressed to comply with the lawsuit.
Traveling down into the subway, these issues become apparent.
One major problem is the existing gap between the platform and the subway cars
when they pull into a station.
Able bodied travelers can easily step over the gap, but for those customers using a
wheelchair or if they have a visual disability, that gap can be impossible to cross
without help.
Every car that travels the tracks will align differently to the platform and every
platform in this 100 year old system is different.
We have a program right now, we are going out and identifying what the problems are.
It has shown that there are problems crossing the platforms.
Up here in the back bay area we have what you call direct fixation.
And when it was built it was built with a four-inch gap in mind.
So what we are doing is correct the face of the platform to minimize that gap.
Fixing the relationship of the cars to the platforms will take several years to address.
As a temporary solution, customers in need of assistance can call ahead and
have a bridge plate available at both the departing and arrival stations.
It is a metal platform, they place it across the gap between the car and the
station and platform because there is a big space of height and width where the castors in
the chair can get caught and do, they do frequently and people can either be jammed in
their or they can fall out of their chairs.
It is a good idea until we have the newer kind of technology that will not
require extra people and extra equipment that is separate from the train.
We face many challenges especially with the older cars, theres many steps that
you have to go up.
And we had to come up with a solution so that we could find a solution so that people can
get on the train and it can be easy.
So we have a portable ramp that we use because unlike a subway where it is plush with
the platform, we travel out on the street and we face many challenges everyday.
With the nature of subways, this problem may never be solved completely, however one
of the steps being implemented to help is the purchase of new rail cars that will have
tighter tolerances and innovative designs.
The document that we were provided was unlike what we are typically provided with, which
is information on the back of a napkin. What we got this time was a detailed technical
requests from the advisory committee. What we are doing with that information is going
out to different vendors to see what's available.
We are also looking at our existing infrastructure to see are these items, can they be
incorporated in this future vehicle, can they be used here in transportation service in
the Boston environment.
While new rail cars may be years away, there are technologies that are being
implemented that are making a difference today.
One of the most intriguing is Wayfinding.
Well basically Wayfinding is the ability for an individual to navigate through station
platform, through corridors, passageways through the system in a independent manner.
For the sighted community usually there are signs that have helped people to find
their way from the platform to the exit for parking and to take buses.
The problem is then is that there has never been anything like that for people who are
visually impaired.
Wayfinding today means implementing certain technologies that will help
those people with visual impairments find their way thru the system just as easily
as everyone else.
These technologies include larger print signs, signs that are place in locations that
are easier to see, signs that are designed with proper contrast ratios and colors.
It also means having available tactile signs and maps, which are signs that can be read by
touch as well as by vision.
The goal of wayfinding is to make the MBTA accessible to all.
We look at it for everybody, wayfinding to us is, we do over a million people a day.
We look at it as everybody coming into the system should be able to find their way
around.
One of the challenges of creating a wayfinding system from scratch is that there is
not a lot of help out there to assist in the design and implementation of these new
ideas.
The MBTA is putting together a comprehensive manual that will detail the entire operation so
that future projects will have just such a source.
But since in the end we own it, we need to make sure it really works for us and that
everything the we have learned is included in there and that it is all organized on the
basis of customer service, how they are laid out, what the elements are, what the
materials are, how high they are hung, how large the letters need to be.
Every detail will be spelled out there in a user-friendly way.