by David Dahlbacka in Accessibility, All Ages, Events, Green Line, Transportation, Transportation Projects
Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:57 pm
| January 27, 2010 | ||
| 1:00 pm |
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MPO Access Advisory Committee to the MBTA Meeting
Wed. Jan 27 1:00 PM
State Transportation Building
Conf. Rms. 2, 3
10 Park Plaza
Boston MA (map)
This is the regular meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization Access Advisory Committee. This committee was created to improve transit access and services for people with disabilities.
This meeting is important because the Green Line Extension and the Assembly Square Orange Line T-Stop both need to be handicapped accessible according to ADA guidelines. The MBTA is now under court order to improve accessibility system-wide.
For more information, see:
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Last night (January 12), MBTA Access specialist Marilyn MacNab, and other disability rights experts from the Neighborhood Access Group came to the Assembly Square T-stop Meeting to give folks a vision of genuine universal accessibility.
The Mayor went over to thank Marilyn as well as NAG Founder and Director John Kelly, and members Jeannette Ector and Don Summerfield, for their participation.
now, THAT’S a T-party!
Can any Voices reader give us a report and/or put up any pictures from last night’s Assembly Square meeting?
thanks to David D. for keeping us all linked in to these events!
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Since the Last Meeting in the Summer, the MBTA seems to have heard strong demands for two elevator headhouses, so that there is now a South and North entrance to the station.
The Department of systemwide access, led by Gary Talbot, received a lot of praise for the design of accessible features like elevators that you enter one door and go straight out another, and a common path of travel for both able and disabled people.
I raised concerns about the width of the “multiuse” sidewalk which will run alongside the station, scheduled at 8 feet wide with a 5 foot “buffer” — on the same level as the sidewalk, but maybe something like grass, this wasn’t defined.
There will be a lot of pedestrian traffic, including people with wheelchairs and shopping carts and strollers and big packages from IKEA. I said that 24 feet is too wide for a street, and that the street should be narrower and the sidewalk wider.
Don was likewise concerned about the sidewalk, and thanked the designers for making improvements based on input since the summer.
Jeanette was concerned about elevators that close too soon, and that there be emergency call buttons.
Marilyn said the oblong tree pits are better than square ones, because it is better for the trees and takes away less sidewalk space. She wondered about the use of glass, when glass panes have been broken at Fields Corner station. Marilyn advocated for a paratransit drop-off at the South entrance — now there is just one scheduled for the northern entrance.
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