Making mass transit for everyone

MTA’s chief accessibility of cer wants system to work for riders of all abilities

BY CAROLINE SPIVACK

It was during Quemel Arroyo’s senior year in high school that his perspective shifted. While downhill mountain biking in Vermont, Arroyo sustained a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. e longtime Manhattanite was air-vacced back to the city, where he spent the next 10 months at NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation.

At 18, Arroyo was the eldest pediatric patient. Most of his fellow patients were young children navigating a variety of conditions. “And I just learned that they were invisible,” Arroyo said. “ ey could never fathom a world in which they didn’t rely on someone else to live. And that just didn’t jive with me.” ey were “silenced by design,” as Arroyo put it. at conviction was ever-present as he studied urban design and architecture at NYU. In 2014 he joined the city’s Department of Transportation and served as the rst chief accessibility specialist, where he helped broker a plan to ensure all city intersections are accessible—largely through curb cuts and pedestrian ramps—and increased the city’s accessible pedestrian signals for peo- ple with low vision.

He moved on to Charge Enterprises in 2019, which was focused on e-scooter charging at the time, but after a year-plus stint as the company’s global head of community, Arroyo decided to return to government. In 2021 he became the rst chief accessibility o cer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Arroyo’s responsibility at the MTA is formidable. He must wrangle a subway system that is more

“I really want to imagine a future where people can move around the city at all times whenever they want,” Arroyo said. “Whether that’s 3 in the morning [or] 3 in the afternoon, and be independent, have the autonomy to do so without requiring assistance from a third party.” ough there’s much work to be done, disability advocates and elected o cials are pushing the MTA for a commitment to build on elevator reliability. than century old, the city’s bus eet, Access-a-Ride, Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road to be more accessible to a diverse mix of travelers. Much of that work started with the MTA’s $55 billion 2020-2024 capital plan, of which $5.2 billion is earmarked for accessibility.

For Arroyo, the children he got to know while he was in the hospital as a teenager are never far from his mind, as are older New Yorkers, parents with strollers, riders with bikes or luggage and anyone else excluded by the stereotype of the prototypical mass transit rider.

MTA must dedicate about 15% of each of its ve-year capital plan budgets to station accessibility. If unexpected needs arise, that gure cannot drop below 8% of a total capital plan. “ at has already rede ned how the MTA invests its money,” Arroyo said.

He has had a busy couple of years working toward that vision. Chie y, he helped the MTA reach a landmark settlement last June that resolves two lawsuits led by disability rights advocates. Under the terms of the agreement, the MTA will add elevators and ramps to at least 95% of the subway’s more than 350 stations that lack accessible infrastructure by 2055.

As part of the settlement, the ere is a lot on the horizon for the year. at includes installing the rst wide-aisle fare gate in the subway, expanding a pilot that dedicates space on buses so riders with children can board without folding their strollers, and rolling out some of the rst subway elevators erected and maintained through public-private partnership. Arroyo is particularly thrilled about those elevators, noting that “the private sector usually does a better job at running these types of assets.”

“I like to think of design and innovation as an answer to the calling of our customers with the highest needs,” Arroyo said. “Because I am a rm believer that when we design systems with those with the highest needs in mind, everybody’s needs will be addressed.” ■