For Wood, who heads the Disabilities Network of New York City, the 81 accessible taxicabs currently on the road and the additional 150 expected in the next year are good news. After all, in 2004 there were only five such vehicles operating. But he considers a total of 230 accessible vehicles, out of some 13,000 yellow taxicabs, insufficient to serve the estimated 65,000 people who use wheelchairs in NYC.
When Mayor Bloomberg announced plans this May to convert the entire taxi fleet to hybrid gas-electric vehicles by 2012, some disability advocates were stunned that none of those hybrid vehicles are required to be wheelchair accessible. Most agree that saving 22 million gallons of fuel and reducing carbon emissions by 215,000 tons, according to administration figures, is a good thing – but they wonder why such a massive transition wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity to address a longstanding complaint of people with disabilities.
“The thing is, this is a solve-able problem,” says Joe Rappaport, an advocate with the Taxis for All Campaign, a coalition that has been fighting for more accessible taxis since 1994. “It should fit in with the Bloombergian view of the world, which is that there are technological means of making progress.”
But the administration has raised objections over the cost and aesthetics of potential accessible vehicles that could meet the needs of disabled riders, he said.
In fact, the hybrid models under consideration by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), made by Toyota, Honda and Ford, cannot be modified to include a wheelchair ramp. Regarding the absence of accessible cabs in the hybrid phase-in plan, Matt Sapolin, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, said that regular, non-hybrid vehicles that are wheelchair-accessible would be allowed to stay in the taxi fleet after the transition.
In terms of adding more accessible vehicles to the fleet, administration officials say they are still searching for a solution that meets everyone’s needs. There’s nothing to prevent medallion owners from buying or retrofitting accessible vehicles, but TLC standards and regulations make it costly to do so.
“Our ultimate goal is to see the design and manufacture of a vehicle that satisfies the TLC’s 'wish list' with such attributes as accessibility, clean fuel, pleasing aesthetics, iconic design, sturdiness," and more, said TLC Deputy Commissioner Allan Fromberg.
To maximize the use of the 230 accessible vehicles expected to be on the road by next year, the TLC favors a dispatch system that would allow callers to call 311 or another central number and request a car that can accommodate a wheelchair or scooter. That's a contentious proposal among disability activists. Some think it’s the only reasonable solution right now, because there are such limited options – even though wait times can take up to an hour. Members of the Taxis for All Campaign, on the other hand, are wary, arguing that a dispatch solution lets the administration off the hook on the long-term goal of getting more accessible vehicles on the road, and eventually converting the entire fleet to universally-accessible vehicles.
For a commuter like Edith Prentiss, who lives in Washington Heights and uses an electric wheelchair, the dispatch system offers little progress. “If I had an hour to wait for a taxi to turn up, why would I be bothering?” she said. “I might as well take the bus.” Prentiss believes these transportation obstacles contribute to the “horrendous unemployment rate” among people with disabilities, over 30 percent nationwide.
