I am both a regular rider, and a passionate defender/lover, of public transportation. More specifically, I’m a Metra Electric (University Park line) person. I grew up on the line, frequently taking it from Hyde Park to the Loop as a kid, then from Flossmoor to Van Buren as a college student, and, now, Homewood to Millennium. I do not, for a plethora of reasons, enjoy driving. The accessibility of trains means the world to me—I only wish that they were a lot more frequent, as they were when I was a kid in Hyde Park. An hour between trains is dumb. Two hours is beyond absurd.
I also wish that they were a hell of a lot more accessible. I follow Metra on Twitter; I’m also signed up for Metra alerts by email. (I’d probably get them by text, too, if I could.) The single most frequent alert I get, more frequent even than signal problems, is about out-of-service elevators. Accessible stations generally have only one elevator, so once it’s out, people are out of luck—there is no other way for someone in a wheelchair (or with a stroller) to deal with those long flights of stairs.
The elevators are, I think, out more often than they’re functional–even at stations as heavily traversed as Homewood, 55-56-57, Van Buren, or Millennium, which are, together, likely the busiest stations on the Electric line. Recently I got an alert telling me that the Hyde Park elevator at 55-56-57th Street was out of service. Kensington was suggested as an accessible alternative. (Some of the time, they suggest another Hyde Park station as well—but since that one is also frequently without an elevator, it isn’t always there.)
The Kensington station, heavily used and often elevatorless in its own right, is at 115th Street. The main Hyde Park station, just as massive as it sounds, has entrances at 55th, 56th, and 57th Streets. (I always enter and exist from 57th, just as I did as a kid.) Many Hyde Parkers, both reasonably and responsibly, don’t have cars. So, if the the elevator is out and the nearest option is Kensington, there’s a good chance a Hyde Parker with a wheelchair won’t be getting downtown, or home, any time soon. The same, meanwhile, is true for riders out of Kensington (although they may be more likely to own cars, I don’t know). Their alternative stations are apparently 55-56-57 or Ivanhoe, at 144th Street in Riverdale. Which isn’t exactly close to 115th.
As the climate races closer and closer to complete disaster, we need our public transit to be fully available and accessible for everyone. Taking the train as a disabled person, or a person lugging a stroller or other large equipment, should never be a hail Mary moment. Since we apparently can’t keep elevators consistently up and running, then I guess it’s time to look into new (old) options. Maybe we should be building more ramps for our train stations, and then actually maintaining them. There is a beautiful ramp into the Homewood station, from the west side—but you’ve got to get there first, and between inconsistently unlocked doors and a stunning lack of curb cuts, that’s no easy feat. Assuming you manage to reach that ramp, you might well get down it and be screwed, because it will deposit you at an old, rickety elevator that…often doesn’t work.
I don’t know what the best answer is, but I do know that our public transit has to be accessible. And not a little bit accessible, or accessible in theory, or sometimes accessible. It has to be fully, continuously accessible. Available for anyone and everyone.
Oh, and for that matter? It really ought to be free.
Essentially a Nerd 