-Mark
On almost every location I've tried to hire a taxicab, I've been left sitting on street corners told to call back the next day or even later. I just completed reviewing The Easter Seals Project Action document concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act and You: Frequently Asked Questions on Taxicab Service at the following address:
While the requirements to purchase an accessible Van are outlines relative to "Equivalent Service" there is no guidance as to how services should be provided once accessible Van Fleet is in place.
What I have encountered in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, as well as the Denver metropolitan area on numerous occasions is that these bands are purchased and been used under contract prescheduled service during the day to transport disabled schoolchildren but are parked and "not available" or "not on the road" or "no drivers are available" after standard business hours.
As an example, I drive an accessible Van with hand controls but suffer the misfortune of an auto accident last evening. My Van had to be towed and I was sitting on the street corner at 11 p.m. I'm a quadriplegic and use a power wheelchair. The towing company had no means by which to help me get home. The police officer dealing with the crash incident had no means by which to help me get home. The public para-transit service, Metro Mobility, was fully booked and does not operate after either 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. to the suburb where I live. I pay for OnStar services in my Van for assistance in such situations. The operator at OnStar contacted all of the taxicab companies they could find listed (between 10 to 15) in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Many of which I know many if not all, have numerous accessible vans in their fleet including Airport Taxi which contracts to provide same-day service for those who are able with the para-transit scheduling system. However on each occasion, the OnStar operator was told that no services could be provided as no drivers, vehicles, etc. were available or even that the wheelchair accessible vehicles could not accommodate a power wheelchair which of course is not true. Each time the message was to call back and prescheduled the next day.
I don't believe that is the nature or intent of taxicab service! The police officer also informed me that just recently another quadriplegic individual was involved as a passenger in an automobile accident and they had no means by which to get them home. No taxicabs or other public transportation service providers would respond or were available.
When I spent a week in Denver completing my Masters in business administration degree at Regis University, University purchased advance fare tickets from one of the local taxicab companies that had accessible vans for times when classes or other events ran later than the prescheduled paratransit system could provide. Every time I was told I had to preschedule days in advance, with the exception of one evening where I was able to get a ride downtown to go out to dinner and had a prescheduled return ride, but then when I called for the pickup when the prescheduled ride never showed, I was told no one was available and was left sitting on a street corner 2.5 miles from my hotel. Luckily my power wheelchair just made it back to the hotel and it was summertime, not winter. No other taxicab companies which claimed to have accessible vans would respond or provide service either.
I do not believe this is the nature or intent of the Americans with disabilities act or that of local authorities who provide extra medallions to get accessible taxis into the fleets. Fleet operators are misusing the system and not providing accessible taxi cab services and especially not "equivalent services"!
I have little doubt that if investigated, the same practices are being utilized or rather misused throughout the country.
If non-wheelchair users are able to hire a taxi 24 hours a day and without rescheduling days in advance, should a wheelchair user be expected to not venture outside of their home after the hours of 5 p.m. or not without significant advanced planning?! Such actions are clear civil discrimination the same as if service was not provided to blacks after 5 p.m. or to women without advanced scheduling.
I would appreciate a response on this problem and how direct action might be taken to proactively resolve this issue in metropolitan areas nationwide but especially and immediately in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota? And if taxicabs are not expected to provide "Equivalent Service" as they do to nondisabled individual's, then provisions must be taken with towing companies, police, and other agencies that normally would resolve these transportation issues for nondisabled individual's utilizing their services.
I do not believe in legal means without first pursuing proactive solutions and results. I would be happy to work with your organization's in resolving or coming up with solutions to these problems. A national organization such as TLPA could go a long way toward serving their members in resolving these issues, or in the absence of taking action could also be seen as complicit with ADA violating member service providers.
Sincerely,
Mark Felling, EE, MBA
Quadriplegic
President Broadened Horizons - "Innovative Solutions for the Mobility Impaired"
| |
|
|
| All information above is Hyperlinked |
