Good customer service isn't always about coming up with plans to utilize the best technology, sometimes it's as simple as putting up a sign.
When Metro was announcing plans to lock fare gates, Streetsblog warned that at some transit centers, better signage is needed. For example, at 7th Street Metro Center in Downtown Los Angeles, not every exit has an elevator to the service. From our June 13, 2012 article:
ADA faregate, which is soon to be locked, leads to a lobby with no elevator to the surface. Once out of the paid-fare area, the wheelchair-or-other-elevator-dependent customer will have to purchase a new ticket (on the soon-to-be-required RFID (“TAP”) card which will cost an extra dollar to buy) in order to re-enter the station and head over to an exit with an elevator.
This will mean that while a wheelchair user can exit the station, they will then find themselves trapped in the ticket lobby in the background and will need to pay another fare at the Ticket Vending Machines(TVM) to get to another exit from the station that has an elevator to the surface.
This Monday, Metro latched the fare gates at 7th Street Metro Center. Erik Griswold, who tipped Streetsblog about this issue last year, was there. Sadly, it appears that Metro didn't read our articleor chose to ignore it. Their was no signage directing wheelchair passengers to exits with elevators. This means passengers can TAP their way out of the subway area into an exit area with no way to access the street without TAPing back in. Griswold notes:
The turnstiles/gates were latched today at 7th Street. So now the issue of wheelchair passengers (who may very well head to this exit as it is closest to the arriving/terminating Blue and Expo Line trains) getting trapped is very possible.
When I went past there yesterday, there was no new signage warning wheelchair passengers that no elevators exist to take them up to the street.
