Dan LEVY

Biographical note
Dan joined Metro in September of 2011 to lead a new department responsible for Civil Rights including compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Prior to joining Metro, Dan was with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) where he led the short range transit planning section. Before joining SANDAG Dan worked in the transportation consulting sector with firms in Canada and the US during which time he also worked extensively overseas, completing projects in more than 20 countries on five continents. These projects included all modes of transit as well as in the area of airports and aviation. Prior to entering consulting he was Supervisor of Transit Planning for Edmonton Transit and Senior Planner at the Greater Vancouver Transit System in Vancouver. Dan has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University in Toronto, and a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan.

Presentation: Making Los Angeles metro the most accessible transit system in the world
Metro transports 435 million riders annually, including more than 100,000 individuals in wheelchairs per month. Metro is adopting the best accessibility practices from around the world, and innovating new services, technologies and equipment. The Metro goal is to become the most accessible transit system in the world by making it easier and safer for individuals to plan their trips and use our services, facilities and vehicles. The presentation describes innovative approaches to hands free turnstiles/fare gates and intercoms, the implementation of beacon based way finding for the visually impaired, the first North American system wide adoption of tactile pathways, the design of platform based between car barriers and describes the extensive training provided to all bus operators to help them assist our travelers with disabilities. The results of the improvements have been a significant increase in riders with disabilities and a reduction in proportion of trips taken by wheelchair users on paratransit.