More elevators for train stations

To the editor:

On the evening of Jan. 28 at around 8, tragedy struck when 22-year-old mother Malaysia Goodson fell down a flight of stairs trying to access the subway station at Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street.

She fell down the stairs while carrying a stroller holding her infant daughter.

The station is one of approximately 350 in the city without an elevator. Nearly 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, only 24 percent of subway stations in the city have elevators. The problem is worse in the Bronx where 83 percent of stations discriminate against the disabled.

And while elevators are a necessity for our neighbors with disabilities, we know they benefit everyone, including the elderly, expecting mothers, those going to and from doctor appointments, and parents with strollers.

The New York City Transit Authority is the least accessible mass transit system in the country, and it should not take a tragedy like this to bring this important issue to the fore. Right here in our neighborhood, we have numerous transit stations that are inaccessible, including our Metro-North stations, the Mosholu Parkway station on the 4 train, and the West 242nd Street station on the 1 line.

For the sake of everyone, the time to make our mass transit system fully accessible is now.

Eric Dinowitz