How to Save $50 Million a Year …and Improve Access-A-Ride
September 16, 2009
An estimated 60,000 wheelchair-users live in New York City, but only 238 of the 13,000 medallion yellow cabs (less than 2%) are able to accommodate a wheelchair passenger. This is an every day reality for wheelchair users who are often left stranded without access to a key element of New York City’s transportation infrastructure. To address this unequal access to transportation, I sponsor a bill (A.7842/S.4861) with State Senator Tom Duane to require that by 2011, all taxicabs in New York City are accessible to people with disabilities.
My Op-Ed, “Escape from Access-A-Ride,” in the New York Post on Saturday, September 12th pointed out that having a 100% accessible taxi fleet doesn’t just make sense from a civil rights perspective — it could also save millions of dollars for the Access-A-Ride program. These are costs borne by the cash-starved City and MTA budgets. And, not only could we save public dollars, we could do all this and provide a better service for paratransit consumers.
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