DC Metro adds signage to remind nondisabled riders not to use priority seating for disabled or elderly passengers

From the Washington, D.C. Examiner:

Metro is reminding its train riders to reserve special priority seats for those with disabilities — even if the disabilities aren’t obvious.

The transit agency said May 18 it has posted signs pointing out the priority seats by the center doors of each rail car that are for senior citizens or people with disabilities.

Agency officials are putting ads in trains and rail stations, while broadcasting announcements about the policy. They handed out brochures Monday in busy downtown stations.

The Americans With Disabilities Act requires the transit service to provide priority seating. But Metro can’t enforce it the way police can ticket a driver who parks in a handicap parking spot without the proper license plate or temporary tag. So the agency is asking for passengers to do the right thing.

For some riders, the question becomes: Can someone sit in those seats without a disability, the way people use a handicap bathroom stall if no one else obviously needs it?

“It would be best if they do stay out of the seat,” advised Metro spokeswoman Angela Gates. “But if they do sit in the seat, they should make it available if someone comes on the train who needs it.”

Metro officials also advise riders who need the seats to ask for them.

The special seats make up four of the 60 to 68 seats on each train. On a packed train carrying a “crush load” of 175 riders, those seats can be hard to reach or even see.

Sometimes riders give up non-priority seats. Last week a middle-age woman gave up her inside seat on a crowded Orange Line train to a younger woman who was visibly pregnant.

But on another car, no one gave up his seat to a blind man loaded down with bags. Two young women sat chatting as he struggled to adjust the three bags while holding on to his white cane and the train itself.

“Not all disabilities are visible, and it might not always be obvious when a person needs a seat,” Metro’s accessibility program director Glenn Millis said in a written statement. “For those reasons, we are asking customers to do the right thing and make sure that priority seats are available for people who really need them.”