The Governor`s Transportation Task Force for Individuals with Disabilities has completed the draft of its report on the state`s mass transit systems with some expensive recommendations. The report urges the state to make a substantial part of the Chicago area`s rapid transit, commuter railroad and bus system accessible to wheelchair users.
The task force report, which has yet to be formally adopted, contradicts the policy that has been developed by the Regional Transportation Authority subsidiaries in recent years. The transit systems have been moving, albeit slowly, toward creating special service for handicapped patrons, primarily dial-a-ride minibuses and taxicabs that provide door-to-door service. The task force apparently wants to mainline the handicapped riders on regular trains and buses.
The state should take a very careful look at the costs involved before it requires accessibility on mainline transit equipment.
A 1980 federal study estimated the 50-year cost for just such accessibility, in 1979 dollars, at $751.3 to $986.6 million, depending upon the number of stations involved. Other reports also pointed out that there is no known technology to make the commuter railroad`s bilevel cars accessible, so the task force recommended a study to develop specifications for a new car. The Chicago-area transit systems chose the less expensive option of door- to-door service because of the costs associated with mainline service and serious doubts about whether handicapped riders would use it even if it were accessible.
The worst thing for the Task Force to do at this point is recommend to the legislature another onerous financial burden on the metropolitan area transit system. What could be of benefit to everyone involved, including the region`s handicapped population, is a thorough marketing study of the transportation needs of the handicapped and how those needs can be most cost effectively served. One study in the 1970s showed that only a tiny fraction of the handicapped population would ever use mainline transit systems even if they were made accessible. And if the Chicago area`s transportation handicapped population were to use mass transit in the same general percentage as the rest of the population, they would account for about 26,000 daily riders, hardly a market to justify a $751 to $987 million investment.
It would be unfortunate for the state to undo the 1983 financial reforms it imposed on the RTA by mandating an expensive system to mollify a very determined special interest group.
