Toby Rosen, an 86-year-old widow with failing vision and arthritis, has been stranded in her Queens apartment since the MTA told her last month that she was not disabled enough for the city's paratransit system."I don't deserve this," said the Flushing great-grandmother, who walks haltingly with a cane because of gout and arthritis. "I've never done anything wrong."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sent Rosen a letter March 6 telling her that Access-A-Ride - its legally mandated bus service for the disabled - would no longer provide her with transportation.
"Your impairment does not prevent you from using fixed-route public transit," the letter stated.
Rosen, who has used the service for more than six years, was among thousands of disabled men and women forced to reapply because of eligibility changes made last year.
"For the MTA to reject her from Access-A-Ride is essentially leaving her homebound," said Michael Harris, executive director of the Disabled Riders Coalition. "I think that's an absolute abomination."
Harris said his organization opposed the new requirements, which include a mandated physical examination at an MTA site - a prohibitive requirement for some disabled.
"We are seeing people who had full Access-A-Ride ... end up with conditional or no eligibility whatsoever," Harris said.
Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for NYC Transit, said the in-person interviews were meant to weed out people who did not need the service.
"This is a service for people who are transportation disabled," she said. "We don't just go by doctors' notes."
At the interviews, men and women are asked to climb mock bus stairs, she said.
Parker said Rosen's appeal hearing was scheduled for Thursday, and "this is just part of the process."
City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens) said he understood the MTA's need to make the system more efficient.
"But they are needlessly running people through the gantlet," he said. "It's bureaucracy gone awry, when the MTA is requiring great-grandmothers to recertify."
Rosen, whose family emigrated from Poland in 1929, said she missed Passover dinner because she was unable to get to a relative's home in Manhattan.
She said she hoped a letter from her doctor to the MTA explaining that she "can not walk unaided and can not take public transportation" would help her get back on the bus.
"I don't bother them if I can get a ride," Rosen said. "But do you know how much it hurts? Years ago I used to drive. I couldn't do that in a million years now."
Michael A. Harris
Executive Director
Disabled Riders Coalition, Inc.
Telephone: 800.239.4216 (24/7)
Direct line: 646.246.8795
Fax: 646.405.9795
Pager: 917.253.8095
E-mail: mharris@disabledriders.org
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