Transit

Sarles responds on wheelchair access

by Letters to the Editor   •   April 25, 2011 12:20 pm

Dear Ms. Larsen,

I read your Washington Post Letter to the Editor and Greater Greater Washington post, and want to let you know that we are working to try to improve to better meet the needs of all our customers.

Photo by Daquella manera on Flickr.

As part of our capital program to rebuild system safety and reliability, we are investing more than $100 million to rehabilitate or replace 22 elevators and 103 escalators on the Red, Blue and Orange Lines. After decades of inadequate maintenance and underfunding, Metro has a commitment from the jurisdictions in the region and the federal government to support our efforts to restore the system's state of good repair. While these improvements take time, and cause some inconvenience for customers, the benefits will be better reliability of elevators, escalators, and train service.

Meanwhile, during the Cherry Blossom festival in particular, Metro had technicians available to immediately assist with escalator and elevator issues at the Smithsonian, L'Enfant Plaza, Waterfront, Arlington Cemetery, Capitol South and Metro Center Metrorail stations. I have shared your concerns with Rail Operations management to learn exactly what transpired at Union Station and to determine how we can improve going forward—including making elevator wayfinding signage more visible.

Metro is considered one of the most accessible systems in the country, and every Metro station has an elevator—there are no stations that require the use of steps prior to accessing an elevator. We have posted the locations of our elevators with the accessibility symbol on our Station Name signs about every 20 feet on platform walls and pylons. Also, for your future use, we have posted to the outside of every elevator a sign that provides the 24 hour elevator outage number, 202-962-1212 and 202-962-1825, which is the number to call for a shuttle if the elevator is out of service.

While our elevator reliability has been fairly good—generally over 95% of elevators are available each month—I also want to make sure you are aware of the tools we have when planning any future trips with us, including information regarding elevator outages. If you call 202-962-1100, we have people who are available to assist visitors with disabilities in advance of your trip. Also, you will soon see improvements on our website with better real-time information about elevators that are out of service for maintenance or repair.

I realize this information doesn't change the experience you had. But know that we are working to improve, and that our executives do travel through the system periodically with members of our Accessibility Advisory Committee so that we can see the system through the eyes of others.

Sincerely,

Richard R. Sarles
General Manager
and Chief Executive Officer

Dear Mr. Sarles,

I do appreciate your attention to accessibility issues. I would like to point out a few things in response to your letter and suggest some easy fixes to help disabled tourists.

1) While each station may have at least one accessible entrance, there are many station entrances that do require steps. Once you navigate these steps, you will find that the turnstiles do not accommodate wheelchairs (or strollers or ...). Then you have to undo all of that and try another entrance—which may have steps lurking half way down the corridor. ALL of these non-accessible entrances should have signs saying "This is NOT the accessible entrance. The accessible entrance is (on the west side, one block up... etc.) Please also inform police staff, maintenance staff, and others about these entrances--a nice brochure/map would be lovely. I was directed down two non-accessible entrances by police men and by metro staff at the Union Station.

2) While you may well have staff stationed for breakdowns, there was no signage whatsoever on the Smithsonian exit elevator (from the blue line/metro station side). There was only a yellow gate. I spent 5 minutes just figuring out that it was broken and not some fancy way of doing the pass through the turnstile. This station in particular has its elevator far far away from staff—in a dark corner on the far side of the track. Please instruct ALL metro staff that if there is an outage (even to clean up for a moment) to put up a sign:

"This is out of order. The nearest elevator is at __ station. Please call 202-962-1212 and 202-962-1825 for assistance." You could print up a stack of these things and keep them in the stationmaster's office.

This sign was NOT available at the Smithsonian elevator. To be fair, that was the only place that I searched in desperation for a number. And it may be on the elevator itself--but I could not get through the turnstile to get to the elevator. So, please, recheck to make sure that these signs are at:

• Each turnstile/entrance to each elevator
  
• Each elevator
  
• Each restroom.

3) I may have been extremely unlucky, but there were no technicians available at the Smithsonian entrance between 4:35 and 5:20 pm on Monday April 4th. I also don't think the technicians were available earlier, because when the policeman and metro staff finally rescued me and got me and my wheelchair up the escalator, they spoke about having to do the same thing about 2 hours earlier. So, please check this availability. Again, I understand breakdowns. But not having a SIGN about the breakdown and an explanation of where to go is absolutely inexcusable!

4) "We have posted the locations of our elevators with the accessibility symbol on our Station Name signs about every 20 feet on platform walls and pylons." I was looking. I did not see one of these. However, I am in a wheelchair and therefore I am 3 feet tall. Could you make them larger? or eye level with a wheelchair? Or provide a printable brochure? Or have brochures available to give out to tourists? (If this is a cost issue, I am sure we can do some fundraising!) I will be in DC again May 13th and I will be happy to retrace my steps with someone.

5) I did go to your website—and my impression was that if I were a DC resident, call this number, prove I am handicapped, go through more bureaucracy, and I might be able to get an accessible ride. In no way did I see that I as a tourist could also get help or directions or even a map. On your website, on the front page, please put a new section: Accessibility for tourists. In this section, put links to maps, phone numbers, etc. As taxis in DC charge $20 per ride for people in wheelchairs, the metro makes sense for a lot of handicapped tourists—who need this information.

Thank you,
Deena Larsen

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