NYC orders all new yellow taxis to be wheelchair accessible, but drivers gripe about cost - Gothamist

Published Oct 20, 2024 at 2:13 p.m. ET

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Every new yellow taxi in New York City must be wheelchair accessible under rules finalized by the Taxi and Limousine Commission on Friday, marking the latest step by officials to comply with a federal court order stemming from a lawsuit filed by disability advocates more than a decade ago.

The new rules mean the TLC will only approve a new vehicle license to a yellow taxi medallion holder if their car is equipped with a wheelchair ramp and other safety features for disabled riders. And whenever a taxi owner completes a so-called hack-up — or a refitting of their vehicle that’s required every seven years — the accessibility equipment must be added to their taxi.

A 2013 settlement of a federal lawsuit between the TLC and disability advocates mandated 50% of the city’s roughly 13,500 yellow taxis be wheelchair accessible by 2020. That deadline was pushed back to June 2023 during the COVID-19 pandemic — but the city still failed to meet the goal, “reaching only 32% for the Authorized Medallion Requirement and 42% for the Active Medallion Requirement,” according to court records.

TLC chair David Do said during a commission meeting last week the agency’s new rules will allow for half of the city’s yellow taxis to be wheelchair accessible by the end of March. The federal court order requires the entire fleet to be wheelchair accessible by 2028.

Taxi drivers bemoaned the new requirements, arguing city officials are passing the costs along to cab owners who are already struggling financially from competition with Uber and Lyft, which had a combined 81,319 cars on city streets as of July, according to city data.

Bhairavi Desai, founding member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said adding ramps and wheelchair features to taxis can cost up to $90,000. She said that cost comes on top of mortgage payments many drivers have to pay on their medallions, which cost around $2,000 or $3,000 per month.

“The taxi industry has been incredibly slow to recover post-COVID,” said Desai. “The unregulated entrance of Uber and Lyft has had a devastating impact.”

In response to drivers' concerns, the TLC added an amendment to the rules that offers a one-time six-month extension to making their vehicles wheelchair accessible if they can show financial hardship.

City data shows yellow taxis completed fewer than 100,000 combined trips per day in July, down from more than 500,000 in 2012, before Uber and Lyft flooded city streets with tens of thousands of for-hire vehicles. Desai said yellow cabbies have also taken a hit since the pandemic, which only “multiplied those losses."

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Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]

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