n
Inside A Question Of Leadership — p. 6
Volume 10, Number 11
Metro Mobility — Page 8
SOURCES
November 10, 1999
1
“Inspiration is 95% nature and silence.” — Alice Walker
RESOURCES
November 10, 1999
LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT How Accessible Will It Be? by Jeff Nygaard
M
innesota is planning to build a light rail transit (LRT) system that may not be as accessible for people with disabilities as it could be. Current plans appear to be in full compliance with federal regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but disability advocates say there is more that can be done if the responsible agencies make it a high priority. An ACCESS PRESS investigation indicates that the attainment of maximum accessibility may not be a high priority for those agencies. What is the issue? At the West Cemetery of the former state hospital in Faribault (now a prison), advocates and family members witness numbered grave markers being replaced with markers bearing the name, birth date and date of death of those who died in Minnesota’s institutions.
Cemetery Dedication by Charlie Smith, Editor
O
n October 29th history was made. The Remembering With Dignity project dedicated the West cemetery at the former state hospital in Faribault. For the first time, people with disabilities who died in this institution have proper markers — with their name, the date they were born and the date they died — instead of just a number. Several dozen people gathered in Faribault for a brief, but meaningful ceremony. Disability advocates, friends and some family members of people who died in the institution were there to place three of the 180 marble markers now installed at this cemetery. Richard Hartman of Minneapolis was in Faribault to
honor his sister Marcia, who was born with Down Syndrome in 1943 and died in Faribault four months later. He said, “My mother and father never really talked about my sister... I never heard another word for fifty years.” Recently he saw an article about Remembering With Dignity and went looking for his sister’s grave, No. 600 in the East Cemetery. He spent hours looking for it but never found it. Then, with the help of Jim FassettCarman and another Remembering with Dignity advocate, they found number 600 under two inches of dirt. Mr. Hartman contributed $300 for the marker and was there to watch it being placed. “For me this brought closure,” he stated.
For five years, Remembering With Dignity, a coalition of 11 disability groups, has been working to make this a reality. They received $200,000 from the state Legislature and raised an additional $15,000 privately. According to Rick Cardenas, “We will be back next year at the state Legislature seeking more funds so we can finish the job of bringing dignity back for these people.” In total there are four cemeteries at Faribault. The other Minnesota institutions where grave stones will replace the numbered markers are in Anoka, Cambridge, Rochester, Willmar, St. Peter, Brainerd, Sandstone, Hastings, Fergus Falls and at Ah-Gwah-Ching near Walker.
There are many accessibility issues involved in designing an LRT system, including access to information about the system, the provision of adequate handrails and stanchions, and supplying sufficient priority seating. For people with mobility impairments, perhaps the most basic issue is that of physical access to the system. The question literally is “Can I get in the door?” While the doors of an LRT system will automatically open and close, there remains the matter of getting from the station platform into the train itself. Federal regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) allow for a horizontal gap between platform and station of no more than three inches. And that’s where disability advocates see a potential problem. A gap of three inches would be big enough to trap the small front wheels of a wheelchair, for a cane to slip into, or for the front feet of a walker to become wedged into, posing an obvious danger when the train pulls away from the
platform. In fact, advocates point out, anyone wearing high heels may be at risk with a gap that size! The Metropolitan Council and the State of Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) are the two agencies with primary responsibility for developing the LRT project. Mary McFarland, Public Affairs Coordinator at MnDOT, stated that, while there has been talk about narrowing the gap further than what is currently required under federal rules, “[our] current thought is that a three-inch gap would meet ADA requirements,” and thus might be satisfactory. Steve Morris, Director of Transit Development for the Metropolitan Council, allowed that “some folks with disabilities” might wish that the gap be narrowed further than legally required. However, he indicated that, as far as he knows, it isn’t technically feasible right now. “I’d be curious to know if anyone [in other cities] has narrowed the gap to less than three inches,” he said. Why Three Inches? If a three-inch gap is insufficient to guarantee safe access to a public train for people with disabilities, why is that what the law requires? The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George Bush in 1990. In the months that followed, various federal agencies worked to develop the implementing regulations for the Act. In the case of public transit, the federal Department of Transportation wrote into law the specific accessibility-design requirements for buses, vans,
trains, and “other systems.” These regulations, now written into Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, are based on recommendations from the federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, more commonly known as the “Access Board.” Dennis Cannon, Accessibility Specialist for the Access Board in Washington, D.C., points out that “at the time of writing the regulations, three inches was believed to be the best we could do.” He added that, since it has now been almost 10 years since the regulations were written, there are new technologies in existence to narrow the gap that were not available then. Cannon listed a number of examples of possible solutions for narrowing the gap. In existing systems where rail lines are used for both freight trains and passenger trains, a piece of synthetic material has been attached to the platforms to reduce the size of the platform gap. The theory is that, if the freight trains roll in and clip the edge of the platform, the result will be to simply tear off the essentially “disposable” synthetic material, which can then be easily replaced (rather than causing permanent damage to the platform or threatening the stability of the train). This solution is known in the trade as a “sacrificial edge.” When asked if such “sacrificial edge” technology could be used to make a new LRT system, such as the one planned for the Twin Cities, more accessible, Cannon said “I don’t know why not.” According to Cannon, rail systems in France use a rider-
LRT - cont. on p. 7