An MTA seat for someone in a chair: Hochul needs a board member to champion people with disabilities

Last spring the state Senate approved a bill 63 to zero and the Assembly did so 149 to zero (one assemblyman was absent that day) requiring state transportation authorities have on their boards a voting member “who is limited to public transit as their primary mode of transportation because the individual has a temporary or permanent disability.” It means a person who uses a wheelchair will help run the agency.

The bill, signed by Gov. Hochul on Dec. 28, becomes effective after 90 days and applies to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, the Rochester-Genesee Transportation Authority, the Capital District Transportation Authority and the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority, providing bus service in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and Syracuse and their environs, (as well as the light rail in Buffalo.)

What the new law does not apply to is one more such agency: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway, buses and commuter rail. Must have been an oversight.

With the exception of Victor Calise, who left the board last June after two years, the MTA has never had a board member who can’t use stairs and has to rely on subway elevators that don’t exist or are broken. The other option is the horrible Access-A-Ride paratransit program, which burns an astronomical amount of money delivering about the worst possible service imaginable.

The new legislation actually converts the seat for the person with a disability from a non-voting position to one with full power. The MTA has six non-voting reps set aside for riders and unions, but none of those board members have ever been wheelchair users.

Hochul, who has two vacancies on the MTA board, doesn’t have to wait for the new law to be amended. She should put at least one wheelchair user on the board now. Calise was key in getting the MTA to commit to install elevators in most every station. But there’s still much work to do to make the MTA more usable by all New Yorkers.