East Flatbush Is A Transit Desert For Disabled Residents: Report

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — East Flatbush is one of 62 city neighborhoods without a single subway station accessible to people with disabilities, a new report found.

Approximately 640,000 New Yorkers who rely on accessible stations to move around the city live in “ADA Transit Deserts” where none are to be found, new report released by City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office on Tuesday.

“For every inaccessible station, there is a New Yorker who can’t get to work, pick up their children from daycare, or visit their doctors,” said Stringer. “Too many New Yorkers are left stranded by the MTA.”

Flatbush and 25 other Brooklyn neighborhoods lack a single station where mobility-impaired residents, seniors and small children can access New York City’s subway system , the study found.

East Flatbush's mobility-impaired residents must travel to Prospect-Lefferts Gardens to access 2 and 5 trains at the Church Avenue station, Midwood for southbound Q trains at Avenue H, Canarsie for L trains at the Rockaway Parkway station, and Crown Heights for 3 and 4 trains at the Utica Avenue station, according to the MTA's list of accessible stations.

The study found ADA Transit Deserts exacerbated unemployment rates among disabled New Yorkers, noting only 23 percent of mobility-impaired city dwellers are employed or actively looking for work.

Citywide, only 24 percent of the New York’s 472 subway stations accessible, a number researchers said was, “by far the lowest share among the country’s metropolitan rail systems.”

The report calls for an $8 billion to fund the MTA’s new Fast Forward Plan, which promises to make 50 stations across the city ADA accessible within five years time.

The goal is to insure no rider is more than two stops away from an accessible subway station.

Read the full report here.

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