New York– Disability advocates rallied to demand better subway access from the MTA by taking the money already earmarked for more cops to instead go toward adding more elevators.
Protesters in Herald Square on Tuesday chanted, “Full access, full service—no cops, no fares.” The participants demanded that the entire subway system be made wheelchair accessible.
They slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to hire hundreds of additional MTA police officers. They called on the money to be redirected to accessibility, making the subways free, and booting cops from patrolling the subways.
New York City Transit President Andy Byford said that the five-year capital plan calls for making dozens of stations wheelchair-accessible so that no one has to go more than two stations to get in.
The MTA said that 70 stations will be made accessible at the cost of $5 billion and that the Access-A-Ride program that runs on demand will be expanded.
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