All new taxicabs in New York City must be wheelchair-accessible to comply with a requirement that half of the fleet accommodate disabled passengers, a federal judge ruled.
A 2014 legal settlement between disability rights advocates and the Taxi & Limousine Commission, or TLC, mandated that 50% of the city’s taxis be wheelchair accessible by 2020. At the time, about 2% of taxis could accommodate wheelchairs.
But as of last year, just 32% of all medallions — and 42% of those affixed to vehicles actively circulating — were for wheelchair-accessible taxicabs, according to the Taxis For All Campaign, a coalition of advocates that filed the suit.
U.S. District Court Judge George B. Daniels in Manhattan wrote in a ruling this week that the fact that the TLC “failed to meet its 50% accessibility requirement by 2020, or even belatedly by 2024, does not constitute anything close to substantial performance.” He ordered all new taxicabs to accommodate wheelchairs until the 50% mark is met, but he rejected a motion by the plaintiffs to have a special master appointed to help the TLC take steps to make their fleet accessible.
“We are pleased with the court’s ruling requiring that 100% of all new taxis are accessible until the 50% threshold is reached, and it is now time for the city and TLC to show a real commitment to accessibility by keeping the 100% rule in place in perpetuity,” said Daniel Brown, attorney for the plaintiffs, in an email.
In a court filing the TLC said that “seismic changes” to the taxi industry — related to the growth of Uber and similar services, the COVID pandemic, and the corresponding decline in value of medallions — had made it impossible to comply with the requirements.
Given the new court order, it is projected that 50% of taxis will be accessible by the end of the year, according to a TLC letter to the court.
In addition to yellow cabs, the TLC licenses nearly 6,000 for-hire vehicles that can accommodate wheelchairs, so together the agency said the city now has the most accessible vehicles in history.
TLC Commissioner David Do said the agency will soon propose rules to implement the judge’s mandate. “Working to ensure that people with disabilities have exactly the same access to transportation as everyone else has always been one of our top priorities, and this only reinforces that commitment,” Do said.