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NYC taxi riders with disabilities warn changes to city program may mean worse service
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jan 22, 2025
Modified Jan 22, 2025
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Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jan 22, 2025
Modified Jan 22, 2025
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Disability groups are urging New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission not to do away with the current version of the Accessible Dispatch program — for letting riders call wheelchair-accessible cabs — by turning to a variety of e-hail apps for the service.
In a recent letter to Mayor Eric Adams and during a TLC hearing on Wednesday, the groups said the current program and its single vendor provide a direct point of contact to a “lifeline” for New Yorkers — one they said disabled riders rely on when other services like Access-A-Ride run late or private vendors like Uber and Lyft don’t have accessible options available. And they warned changing that could mean stranding riders as they try to navigate a confusing variety of services that don’t have as much experience serving their needs.
Through the TLC’s current program riders can request green or yellow accessible cabs through the program’s own app or website, by calling the dispatch center or 311. At the hearing, commission leaders said a plan to shift to multiple e-hail providers like Arro, Curb and Myle would expand accessibility services, but advocates predicted it would instead diminish the quality of the operations.
According to Cindy Davidson, the TLC’s assistant commissioner for program planning and management, demand for Accessible Dispatch is down as more options for disabled riders have come on the market in the seven years since the program’s inception. For-hire vehicles make up 55,000 of the 62,500 accessible rides requested every month, according to the TLC.
“The decrease in trips is not due to the lack of service, as there are more accessible taxis available and wait times are shorter. Rather, customers have more ways to request a wheelchair accessible vehicle across all TLC sectors,” Davidson said. “We’re also looking to redirect the $6 million in program operating costs that come from the Taxi Improvement Fund to finance more accessible taxis.” The fund provides payments to taxi medallion owners who put wheelchair-accessible cabs into service.
Last summer, a judge ordered that all new taxicabs in New York City must be wheelchair-accessible, even as the TLC lags well behind the requirements of a 2014 legal settlement that said by 2020, half of all taxis should be wheelchair-accessible. The advocacy groups predict the savings to the fund still wouldn’t be able to finance nearly enough new wheelchair-accessible taxis to serve New Yorkers’ needs.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Joseph Rappaport of the Brooklyn Center for Independence told the TLC, “Don’t fix what isn’t broken,” arguing it doesn’t make sense to end one accessibility program to finance another.
“Accessible Dispatch, its design now, works,” said Rappaport, the group’s executive director. “It takes just one simple call to reach a New York City-based dispatcher who can understand you and get you a taxi right away. I've used it for colleagues. It's rare that government-funded programs work as well as Accessible Dispatch, as for me and for others, no one from our community asked for the program to change, and it makes no sense to abandon it.”
The Brooklyn Center for Independence was one of 14 advocacy groups that signed the letter to Adams.
Davidson, with the TLC, said the new program would require the e-hail apps to offer customers the ability to request cabs by calling — a sticking point for disability advocates who argue the option to make calls is crucial for those who may not have smartphones or be able to use apps easily, including aging and visually impaired riders. But many are skeptical of the e-hail apps’ ability to provide the same level of service as currently in place.
“Being patient and helpful and easy to reach is not anything we have experienced from individual vendors phone lines — we've been prevented from calling back, sent the wrong vehicle and treated with impatience,” said Jean Ryan, president of Disabled in Action, another group that signed the letter to Adams.
“We need a service which can be called back if the vehicle doesn't show up, or if we can't find it, or if they send the wrong kind of vehicle,” she added. “Lastly, we need a service who can understand people with speech differences and hearing loss who need transportation. With app vendors, we have been hung up on, listened to a recorded message instead of a human when we had to call back, talk to clueless people and encounter difficult phone trees.”
Representatives of taxi hailing apps, including Myle's CEO and founder Aleksey Medvedovskiy, were also among those who spoke in support of the new program. He said the app already has a call center with trained dispatchers and is prepared to take on the volume, and that drivers are made to understand the needs of disabled riders.
“Not only would we be ready, we actually do it right now as subcontractors for MTA and private rides,” he said. “Every single dispatcher is properly trained, understands the severity of the trip. For example, we had a bad weather [one] month, it was snowy, it was bad outside. We had to call every single driver that was an accessible trip, explaining to him that you can't just wait for 10 minutes — you got to provide additional time. You got to make sure that you help the passengers, you got to make sure that the car is clean. You got to make sure there is no snow, ice and whatnot.”
Those against the app also expressed concern about the jobs that could be lost if the current program ends, including those currently held by New Yorkers with disabilities.
The change to the program will be voted on at a future commission meeting.
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new york city
transportation
Catalina Gonella
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