New York City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell has introduced legislation that would make all New York City taxicabs accessible to people who use wheelchairs, Examiner.com has learned.
Koppell, a Bronx Democrat says that he used to think that people who use mobility aides should use Access-A-Ride to get around the city, but says that a staffer who uses a wheelchair helped change his mind. Now, the former state attorney general has become a crusader for the rights of the disabled.
“I saw the freedom she had riding the buses and it changed my view,” said Koppell in an interview at his Manhattan office. “She could go where she wanted, when she wanted. She had this new freedom – I thought it was great.”
But while all MTA buses have been accessible since 1993, the same is not the case for yellow taxicabs. Only 231 of the more than 13,000 taxicabs in the city are accessible.
“Whether it’s going to the doctor, work or a Broadway show independently getting around is a basic civil right,” said Koppell. “It’s a right that has been denied to people with disabilities for far too long.”
This is not the first bill that would mandate that all new accessible taxicabs be accessible, two similar bills failed to make it out of committee.
“This is what we've been fighting for quite some time, and a reintroduction of a bill that was previously in the hopper,” said Marvin Wasserman, executive director of the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled. “Virtually everyone from Mayor Bloomberg on down has said that a 100 percent accessible taxi fleet is their ‘ultimate’ goal. The question is – when will we make this happen? Now is the time to begin working for a taxi fleet that is accessible to everyone.”
Koppell says that the two previous bills, one of which he authored were “not at the right time.” He says that former Taxi chief Matthew W. Daus had told him that the legislation would be moot, because the Taxi of Tomorrow would create a purpose-built accessible taxicab, a promise that he repeated in a March interview with Examiner.com.
“After seeing that only one of the three finalists in the project was accessible I knew it was the right time to step up,” said Koppell. “The taxi of the future must be one that enables all New Yorkers to get around – it’s a basic civil right.”
A hearing on Koppell’s bill and other transportation accessibility issues is scheduled for Tuesday.
A Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman declined comment for this article.
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