Taxis In NYC

Friday, February 4, 2011

Hailing a cab in New York City should be easy. It is easy for all those that are bipedal. If you ever want an exercise in frustration I suggest you use a wheelchair and try hailing cab. Good luck with that effort. I for one have given up. I refuse to give my money to rude cab drivers. Every experience I have had with cab drivers in the city has been overwhelmingly negative. Last time i took a cab the driver spent the entire ride telling me what a hassle it was to "help" a person like me, that he lost time "helping" me, and that they should have "special" taxis for people like me. I told this man I would be thrilled to use a "special" taxi but of the 13,237 yellow cabs only 230 are wheelchair-accessible. Gee no wonder i have trouble.

The situation hailing a cab in NYC is unlikely to get better any time soon. The city is in the process of choosing the cab of the future and of the three finalists only one is accessible. It is unlikely this accessible cab will be chosen. The city has suggested and had a stealth experimental dispatching number people with a disability could call when they needed a taxi This was in the estimation of the city a reasonable accommodation. If this is reasonable to you I think we have vastly different interpretation of the word. Now Senator Tom Harkin has backed the accessible taxi. This is great but for one thing--Harkin is from Iowa not New York. I applaud Harkin's support but doubt it will do much good. I wish I had an answer to the problem of hailing cabs in New York and other cities such as Chicago. I do know other cities present no problems--mostly Western cities such as Seattle and San Francisco. I also know cities like London present no problems either. Perhaps we need to study the issue of why--why is this a problem in some cities and not an issue in others. In the meantime i will continue to use MTA buses that provide slow but reliable service.
 

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