7 On Your Side helps woman with disability get congestion pricing exemption
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Drivers with disabilities who cannot take mass transit are eligible for an exemption on the congestion pricing tolls.
A Queens woman was proactive and applied last May when congestion pricing was first announced.
But this week she was told her application was denied and also somehow lost.
"Either I have to pay for congestion pricing or I don't eat. That's my choice," she said. "Unfortunately, the situation that I'm in life right now, I don't want to be in this situation. But there are other factors happening where it's just it's too much money and I just don't have it, and this is the only way that I can get to work because of my disability."
The single mom who is disabled was brought to tears. She was desperately trying to get an answer on her exemption from congestion pricing tolls.
"Please don't forget about us we are always the forgotten ones," she said.
The 31-year-old woman asked us to not reveal her identity.
"I don't want sympathy. I don't want anyone's pity," she said.
She suffers from a rare auto-immune disease, Dermatomyositis.
Known as DM, the degenerative condition has rendered her too weak to walk at times, which is why last May, she applied for an IDEP, or an Individual Disability Exemption Plan through the MTA, allowing her to drive from Middle Village to the East Side for her full-time job.
"We call this a dead zone in Queens because there is no subway near," she said. "So if I had to, the best option for me would be to walk about five blocks to where I can take the local bus. Take the local bus to an express bus that will leave me about three blocks away from my job, and then I'd have to walk those three blocks to work. Another option is to walk one block in the opposite direction, take a local bus, then I'd have to take two trains when I arrive in Manhattan. That there I'd have to take another local bus to get to work."
"What happened to this entire application you submitted to the MTA last spring?" 7 On Your Side's Nina Pineda asked.
"They took it and then said, in about three weeks, you should get a result," she said.
"And now that congestion pricing is a thing. When you went back, they told you what happened to the application?" Pineda asked.
"They said we don't have the application. One person said all those applications from May were lost," she said.
"Lost?" Pineda asked.
She had come to a testing center for an evaluation on May 23, where she had to walk up the steps of a simulated bus and also sit down. She submitted blood work, a letter from her doctor, and said she was denied.
"How did that make you feel?" Pineda asked.
"I felt humiliated and frustrated," she said.
She was informed on the first day of congestion pricing she was ineligible for a break from the new toll. Why? Because she had outstanding E-ZPass violations. But, her account is clean and should have been given the green light.
"Did you ever hear back from anyone from the MTA?" Pineda asked.
"No," she said.
"Anyone from E-ZPass? Pineda asked.
"No," she said.
"What were you told about the status of your application?" Pineda asked.
"No one could give me any status of my application," she said. "If they have this program in place, then the people that they're hiring need to have the information to give the everyday New Yorkers, to give customers. I shouldn't be calling. I shouldn't have to call five different numbers so many different times just to be told we can't help you, or we don't know, or we can't access your application, or the website's not working. No one has an answer for me, and I'm here getting charged in the meantime."
7 On Your Side contacted the MTA and by the very next morning got this response: "The MTA reviewed the case and determined that the applicant is eligible for the exemption for which she applied. Her E-ZPass account has been updated to add the exemption."
"Thank you 7 On Your Side," she said.
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