Hey, at least the USA has curb cuts

NYC has a lot of money, but this is a huge project, involving continuous disruption to a system that must continue carrying 6 million people per day throughout its completion. The NYC subway has more stations than any other metro system on earth, with 424 stations, of which 133 are already accessible. Hitting 95% by 2055 means around 10/year on average for the next 29 years. While it could always be better, for a system that is over 120 years old, this seems not too terrible to me.

Also, not every subway station is equal. Some see significantly higher ridership than others, or are more critical transfer points, and so can be prioritized to have more impact sooner. It seems like that is what they’re doing.

> "Your grandkids might some day dream of having accessible subway stations" is such a civilizational failure that we've just silently accepted

I agree that the timelines are a real problem, but that's for the long tail. The major transfer stations are mostly there today and the remaining few are on track to get there in the next few years.

NYC has a lot of stations. There are some that basically cannot be made fully compliant with the full spectrum of ADA accessibility requirements, which are actually on the more comprehensive side of the spectrum compared to other countries.

Some of it makes more sense when you see it. There's a station built underneath the pillars of a bridge. Right now they're trying to figure out how to add a second entrance and exit as a first step, but as you can imagine operating on a station under a bridge is hard. It's also the only station in the neighborhood, so you can't just shut it down for a year. Getting it to the point of having full elevator/escalator and other ADA compliant requirements for new construction is basically out of the question without having the most out of control construction project you've seen.

So the long tail of stations are going to take a very long time to get updated, if ever.

It’s not as bad as you think.

The dutch became a bicycle paradise with the same strategy. They just started a couple generations ago.

The problem is only when you set a goal of say 2035 but don’t plan to do anything until 2033. Then it’s clear the plan is to give up in 2031.

it takes longer because they started later.

mobilitY for parents with little children or people in wheelchairs was "not a priority"

it's not that NYC subway was a novelty isn't it?