The Future of Accessibility on BART
You’ve all heard it before, that voice over the intercom asking riders to, “Please keep seats adjacent to the doors available to people with disabilities, the elderly and pregnant women. Thank you for keeping BART accessible for everyone.” This usually follows with an announcement on the list of station elevators that are out of service.
The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system is littered with poor design decisions that I am reminded of on a daily basis as a disabled passenger who commutes from my apartment in downtown Oakland to Montgomery station in San Francisco where I work. Many of the ongoing hardships are due to the fact that accessibility was an after thought in the design process — implemented when the infrastructure was already in place. As you can read about in my first experience on public transportation, elevators are located down long corridors and on opposite ends of the station that are outside of fare gates making the entire accessibility passage segregated, confusing and down-right frightening.
Many problems are costly or impossible to retrofit due to an aging infrastructure that was built in the late 60's. Because of these limitations, many of the mistakes made by the first architects will have to lived with and paid for by some of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable citizens.
BART to get a new fleet of cars next year
One of the greatest opportunities when designing something new is ability to right all the wrongs made by poor decisions in the past — possible through years of invaluable user experience that did not previously exist. This clean slate is a designers dream though not without limitation as form must always follow function. Still, the chance to create a new design is not a chance that comes around all that often and therefore we must get it right.
The iPhone 6s is a far superior device than the original iPhone which did not evolve overnight but instead over years of innovation, advancements in technology and model renditions that strived to make a good product better. It is through failure by design that we garner the most useful data to figure out how to solve problems. Luckily for us, BART has had a lot of public failures that we can learn from. Like, really, a lot.
However, I would like to take a moment to recognize one of BART’s greatest achievements: equal access to all train cars.
Current Design
Today’s BART cars are the closest I’ve ever felt to equality on any public transportation system because all entrances to every car are 100% wheelchair accessible. This is because the current car design has this beautiful balance of symmetry with a consistent layout throughout every car.
On any of the two entrances…
- A blind passenger enters the car and can immediate find seats reserved for the disabled, elderly and pregnant patrons located on the left side of each entrance — a consistency necessary for any person that is sight impaired.
- A wheelchair user will find a dedicated space on one side of each car through either the first or second entrance that must be vacated for them by law.
- A bicyclist will also find a reserved section to stack their bikes along other riders in the first and second entrance with the exception of the first car.
This is about safety cause lets be honest, my 350 pound wheelchair sitting in the entrance would make it pretty difficult to evacuate in the event of an emergency and a car full of bicycles arbitrarily placed throughout is not practical or safe.
But what sent me on a Twitter rampage when I initially took a closer look at the new plan is simply about: inclusion. Currently, every single passenger on BART whether they are blind, using a cane, pregnant, commutes via bicycle or uses a wheelchair to get to work can all co-exist harmoniously. There is no worry about which entrance I should go in or what end of the platform I should be on. It’s freedom by design.
I ask everyone reading this who has taken BART to look beyond the faded walls, the stained seats and doors that constantly break causing mass system wide disruption and play close attention to what they did right in the original design of the train.
Because that is all about to change in 2017 if we move forward with the most recent design of the new cars.
The new layout segregates passengers from one another, creating separate boarding zones for people in wheelchairs and bicyclists.
- The first entrance of the car has center tripod polls with no dedicated zones for wheelchairs or bicyclists, rendering it unusable for them.
- The middle of the car has two zones for wheelchair users.
- The end of the car, also has a tripod pole, and the single bike zone of each car.
The Problem
- Tripod poles centrally placed in the beginning and end of the train make maneuvering in wheelchair difficult or impossible.
- Since elevators are located on the farthest ends of the platform, this will create challenges because wheelchair users cannot board the first or last entrance. The percentage of wheelchair seating may be the same, but at the expense of wheelchair users now having to strategically board the train.
- One bicycle zone per car is 50% of what we currently have which barely supports the current bicycle usage let alone the growing movement of riders year over year in the Bay Area. Not to mention, eliminates so much standing room when bicycles are not on board.
- Segregated boarding zones for bicyclists and wheelchair users.
The solution, “There will be signage on the outside of the trains showing which doors have parking areas for people who use wheelchairs, and which doors have bicycle parking.” — CFILC Press Release
Signage is not a solution to a problem, it exists simply to alleviate the burden of bad design.
This separation of passengers is not a result of any limitation, as we know from the current design, it is completely possible to have a train car that is accessible to everyone.
The plan was modified and then approved by the same organizations who are supposed to be fighting for the equal rights of people with disabilities. Instead, they took a train car that was universal to all without sacrifice and divided it.
This was even admitted by Teresa Favuzzi, Executive Director of CFILC who said, “We recognize that this design is a compromise, and while many riders with vision and mobility disabilities would be best served by having no floor-to-ceiling poles in the new BART cars, we are pleased that the new fleet of BART cars will meet the needs of a diverse group of riders with disabilities.”
One of the focus points of this design allowed for two disabled passengers to ride on the same car together as expressed by one disabled passenger, “I am looking forward to the new BART cars and relieved to know that I can continue to rely on BART to get where I need and want to go. I also look forward to being able to ride together with other wheelchair-users when we travel together.” — Nikki Brown-Booker.
To point out, this has always been possible and will continue to be possible on the first car of the train which does not allow bicyclists. This means that disabled passengers can still ride together as they have always been able to.
I understand it may seem logical to group people with disabilities together mostly because it is something we have seen implemented time and time again in movie theaters, classrooms and in sporting arenas. As someone who has been fighting for my own identity and freedom for as long as I can remember — I am strongly apposed to being forced to only exist within the disabled community. Instead, I want to be fully included in all aspects of society. And yeah, that means I want to be able to enter the train as I please. Separate but equal is not new to people with disabilities, and sometimes, it is unavoidable. However, it should always be the very last resort when incorporating accessibility into any design.
The Solution
- Keep 3-entrances with 1 dedicated wheelchair zone in each entrance (first, middle and last)
- The middle of the car could double for a mixed use area for strollers and luggage when no wheelchair passengers are present.
- Remove the center polls in the beginning and end of the train car which allow for people to move about the car easily.
- Grab bars can be placed above each aisle seat as well as beside each door and hanging straps in the center. By putting grab bars above each seat, this encourages passengers to move to the middle aisles instead of crowding near entrances.
- Place bicycle zones at both front and rear entrances, diagonal to wheelchair zones.
- Add a horizontal grab bar along wheelchair zones — giving the vertical grab bar to those who need assistance while standing.
It is time to be unapologetically critical.
A train car isn’t going to remove all institutional segregation between people with disabilities and the abled bodied community but it’s a damn good place to start. The good news is that it’s not too late to fix this but I cannot be the only person screaming in a crowded room. Please help me in asking BART to rethink the design of the new train cars — one that is fully inclusive to all members in our community.
BART Board of Directors: BoardofDirectors@bart.gov
Thank you,
Sunday Parker
