Message from the commissioner: summit to focus on accessible transportation

Kristen McCosh, the Commissioner of the Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities, provides a weekly update on the work happening in her office.

Last March, my office partnered with the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the Access Advisory Committee to the MBTA (AACT) for a discussion on accessible transportation. The goal of this open discussion is to help transportation providers better understand what is working and what can be done to improve accessible transportation for people of all abilities. Our topics of discussion included:

autonomous vehicles
rideshare (Uber / Lift)
sidewalks in the Public Right of Way
WAV Taxi cabs
parking issues in Boston
MBTA Fixed Route (subway, commuter rail)
MBTA Buses
the RIDE, and
bicycle issues in Boston.

The MPO is analyzing the information collected at the Transportation Summit for their five-year plan. They will subsequently let transportation officials know about user experiences. My office hopes to combine the input gathered from that discussion with responses collected from our Accessibility Priority Survey around transportation to develop and implement strategic plans for the City of Boston.