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Boston falling far behind in court settlement for installing new, safe handicap ramps at intersections, advocates charge in calling for a contempt ruling
By adamg on Sat, 08/10/2024 - 12:32pm
Boston has failed to install as many new handicap ramps at city intersections as it promised to settle a 2021 suit, and many of the ramps it has installed don't meet standards and could prove a menace to people using them, advocates say.
In a filing with the judge overseeing the case, brought by Boston residents and visitors who use wheelchairs, the advocates say the city has fallen 650 ramps behind its commitment under its 2021 consent decree in the case, that many of the ramps the city installed after agreeing to the deal are not actually usable by somebody in a wheelchair or are downright dangerous - and that a number are falling apart so quickly that two years after installation they become unsafe:
For example, numerous ramps force wheelchair users into the path of cars - often with momentum as they roll down the ramp ...
Wheelchair-using Bostonians continue to face many of the same – and some new – challenges and risks they faced before entry of the Consent Decree..
The filing says advocates were willing to cut the city a break at first, because of the effects of both the pandemic and an unusually rainy year in 2021, but that the city has since failed to step up the pace as required under the agreement, which calls for the installation and repair of 15,000 ramps over 10 years. In 2023, the filing charges, the city only installed or repaired 1,050 ramps, compared to the 1,500 required by the consent decree.
And many of those pose dangers to people in wheelchairs, the advocates charge. Of particular concern: The construction of "diagonal" ramps that don't funnel users right into a crosswalk - as shown in this illustration from the filing:
Advocates charge the city's specs for these ramps don't meet federal guidelines for them and so many of the ramps don't provide adequate clearance at the bottom to protect wheelchair users from speeding cars.
As a result, wheelchair users are at risk of being hit by cars when they navigate down diagonal curb ramps not located at crosswalks – perhaps the most dangerous type of curb ramp, as they lead directly into traffic without even the minimal protection a crosswalk might offer.
Lawyers for the advocates say they have tried repeatedly to get the city to change its installation specs, with no success, so "at this point, Court intervention is essential."
Also at issue: Ramps where Public Works installs one of those yellow pads on the sidewalk and then simply dumps out a load of asphalt at the curb, for example:
Citing Federal Highway Administration guidelines, the filing states:
These ramps are unsafe because "[u]sers are more exposed to cars in the roadway" and there is "[n]o clear boundary between the ramp and the street."
Even worse, many of these "built-up" ramps end in a vehicle travel lane.
The advocates ask the judge in the case to order Boston to install at least 7,500 new ramps by the end of 2025 and to inspect all of the ramps installed in 2021 for defects - and fix them - and to meet with the advocates and their attorneys to discuss whether ramps installed in 2022 and 2023 need a similar look.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
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 Complete motion | 408.55 KB |
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Comments
Yep
Public Works and the Disability Commission fought Beacon Hill's push for granite rather than plastic and plastic quickly crumbled leaving dangerous holes at some of the city's busiest walkways (Boston Common entry opposite Walnut Street where you get the benefit of falling down steep stairs if you step in the hole in the plastic).
Meanwhile across the city...
At a recent meeting of the MBTA's Riders Transportation Access Group (RTAG) complaints were made to the MBTA and to Judge King regarding the new center bus lanes being built out.
King is a retired judge charged with oversight of the organization which is made up of defendants of the Daniels-Finegold Settlement Agreement at the top of the list and other people who are seniors with limited mobility as well as those needing full ADA accommodations. The RTAG group meets 2X annually (virtually-Zoom) to review progress of the Daniels-Feingold case, and several other times per year (virtually-Zoom) to interact with MBTA management and their Systems Wide Access Department on various updates at the MBTA that will impact the audience, as well as to hear complaints, often about the MBTA's "The Ride."
It seems that when people were picked up curbside a bus could lower the ramp and people could board as best as possible. Now with center-lane bus rights-of-way with center-boarding platforms, those with mobility or sight issues now have to cross active bike lanes and traffic lanes to reach the boarding platform. There have already been a few negative encounters with both autos and bike riders. Adding to the frustration the boarding platforms at some stops are too narrow and when the ramp is deployed there is no room for a wheelchair to navigate to get onto the bus ramp.
The leadership of RTAG gave the MBTA a rather terse and direct earful at the last meeting with the judge and told the MBTA to go back and work out these problems with the city - and pronto.
This is new territory and has just been heard by the MBTA from the case defendants and I would not be surprised if this does not become a more formal complaint that could re-open the case. Some of this was not well-thought-out.
Film at 11.
Keep putting in the requests
Just want to also drop this here: Fill out the city form to request new ramps.
Most of the requests I submit get denied because "DOT owns that land" or "MBTA owns that land" or "DCR owns that land" despite the fact that they might be on crosswalks that are very high volume (for the exact reason that they are near parks, highways, and transit stations). But at least, I suppose, most of the requests I've sent in do in fact get a response. I've had one successful application, for a ramp outside a busy pharmacy, which you would expect might be high volume for people with low mobility. They say it will be fixed sometime in the next few years. I'll believe it when I see it.
The yellow plastic ramps are in fact a joke, I've seen so many cracked and busted ones that are nothing more now than collection bins for rocks and rubble and trash from the street. Making them even harder to cross than if it was just a smooth surface.
The yellow ADA tactile,
The yellow ADA tactile, truncated dome overlays suck ass. They last months especially when installed incorrectly. Low bids must meed minimum requirements and these demonstrably don’t. And, then there’s the ice.
Will these requests be also
Will these requests be also construed as intimidation by our city chiefs?
Counterpoint:
Counterpoint:
A bunch of “ramps” (many of them with hardly any slope) were redone near my house in Fields Corner this past spring.
The work caused a great deal of disruption, pedestrian danger while the sidewalks are closed for a couple of weeks at the time, cost a fortune and a great deal of carbon emissions for those who care about these things (lots of concrete and plenty of heavy machinery powered by diesel involved for each ramp redo).
And yet, for the vast majority of the ramps that were redone, I can’t see a noticeable difference. See link to pics below.
In recent years, I have been physically disabled for several weeks at the time on a couple of occasions with serious mobility issue where I couldn’t move faster than 2 MPH even if my life depended on it -fully recovered thankfully.
Curb cuts where they existed and look decent (I’d say over 80% of intersections around me) were hardly an issue. What I found super scary was the inability to move out of the way of a speedy vehicle coming my way; that‘s where the real danger lies when crossing the street. This is magnitudes of order more dangerous than a slightly too steep ramp. Forcing motor vehicles to slow down and stop before an intersection should be the priority.
This obsession with ramp perfection looks more like a pretext for some $600/hour lawyers to collect some big settlement money. Funny thing is the city had to file a claim against these lawyers for overcharging and won some money back.
https://gbdhlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/cases/ECF-68-Memo-and-Order-on-...
Below are the links from pics taken near my house in June 2024. The work involved two weeks of sidewalk closing for surveying, excavating, resetting the curb stones, grading, compacting and pouring new sections of concrete sidewalk. These curbs where never anywhere steep. I walk up and down that street all the time, and I have yet to see someone on a wheelchair to ask them if the new ramps make a significant difference to them.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fTQ7BaCfZM8XMgZJA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/deKpJZpSX34aNiXJ7
Sorry, I couldn't make the link work, but if you look up for a Google street-view "24 Arcadia Park, Dorchester", it shows that same intersection with the "dangerous" ramps in 2018.
Can someone explain to me how much safer the new ramp is than the old one? And this is not an isolated case, there have been dozens of new-ish ramps redone in Fields Corner this spring.