WMATA released a press release the day after the Advisory Committee meeting, entitled “MetroAccess service improves“.
Most of the content is a rehash of previous press releases, but a few questions come to mind with this latest set of intentions.
A MetroAccess ride guide, which explains the curb-to-curb transportation service’s guidelines, is being updated and resent to users.
There’s no mention if the guide is accessible - i.e. is there a braille version being sent out, or large print? We realize that the logistics of deciding who needs what version may make it impossible to accomodate the needs of all riders with this project, so when we receive our copy, we’ll ask WMATA for permission to reprint it on this site in multiple accessible formats, including aural.
A weekly conference call available to all MetroAccess customers with MV Transportation and MetroAccess staff is held each Thursday.
Again, what provision is made for accessibility with this project?
Before the call “alert” system was fully operational, telephone calls were made to people with visual impairments to let them know that their ride was approaching. As of Feb. 6, all rides receive a call from a dispatcher or automated system.
This is a change, and one that we hope came out of the conversations WMATA and MV had with the riders at the Advisory Committee meeting - “receive a call from a dispatcher or automated system”. We’re curious to know more about the dispatcher calls, and whether they will allow more flexibility in the proposed calling system.
We’re still unsure of the reliance of the system on automated processes, a point that was mentioned several times during the meeting. Just as driving around DC cannot be easily fitted into a box, neither can the individual needs of riders to accomodate their various medical conditions (or indeed environmental conditions).
IF MetroAccess builds flexibility into the system, there may be hope for such systems. But that requires the willingness on their part to adapt the system to allow it, and the communication of the ridership on what sort of things need that flexibility.
The most striking detail about that press release however goes directly to the heart of why we have re-launched this site. In the snapshot of figures provided by WMATA, there are no complaints recorded for saturday and sunday. To us, this means that they’re taking their complaints figures from those complaints lodged directly with Metro on their customer service line, which does not operate on weekends.
How many complaints were received direct to MetroAccess over the course of those two days? Are the statistics for complaints received during weekdays the sum of complaints received both directly by Metro and through MetroAccess customer service, or just Metro?
The alternative that WMATA would expect us to believe, given those statistics, is that on saturday when there were, according to their figures, 139 late trips and just under 2,000 calls received, there were zero complaints lodged?
We would call on WMATA to clarify whether or not they are “cherry picking” the complaints numbers source - Is it complaints received by Metro Customer Service directly, MetroAccess directly, the sum of unique complaints received by both sources? Or does it depend on which source provides the lowest number for the report that day?
