TLC Central Dispatch is Failing to Provide Adequate Services to Wheelchair Users
October 23, 2009
Central Dispatch was launched as a two-year pilot program in July 2008 to match scattered wheelchair users looking for a taxi with a limited number of accessible taxis. I was –and remain– very supportive of the concept of the program; I wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Post saying so “(The City Needs Cabs For All” - December 5, 2007). In my article, I raised concerns about how Central Dispatch was being structured—and sadly many of my gripes have proven to be very real problems.
After receiving a number of complaints from wheelchair users who told me that the program was not working a few months into the pilot, I conducted a study between December 2008 and January 2009 to determine how well the two-year pilot program was meeting its own goals and the needs of our city’s 60,000 wheelchair users. I blogged about the results of that study early last summer (”STRANDED: How the TLC is Failing Wheelchair Users,” June 7, 2009).
On October 22nd, I was pleased that NYC Council Transportation Committee Chair John Liu held an oversight hearing to examine how well Central Dispatch is meeting its goals and serving wheelchair users. I gave testimony at that hearing, a copy of which can be downloaded from the Publications page of my blog.
Ultimately, until there are more accessible taxicabs it will remain challenging for the TLC to provide the excellent customer service that wheelchair customers deserve to receive. That is why I sponsor a bill with State Senator Tom Duane (A.7842/S.4861) to mandate that after June 30, 2011, taxi owners may put only accessible taxicabs into service when replacing vehicles that have reached their TLC-mandated retirement age.
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