Taxis and Uber Punish Worcester’s Disabled with Lack of Wheelchair-Accessibility

Friday, June 05, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The second largest city in New England provides the fewest number of wheelchair-accessible taxis for its residents.

With a population of roughly 185,000 people, Worcester falls far behind other cities in the region, even those with much smaller populations, when it comes to having wheelchair-accessible taxis at its disposal.

The City of Worcester even admits that 25% of the population is disabled.

The city of Boston has over 100 wheelchair-accessible taxis. Hartford has more than 70 and Providence has 13. The small city of Cambridge has eight wheelchair-accessible taxis.

Worcester has two.

“Red Cab is the only cab company that has two accessible taxis. For the whole city. Half of the time both of these cabs aren’t working. And then they let people take these cabs home with them,” said Robert Bilotta of Worcester, who was recently appointed to Worcester's Disability Commission.

Although Worcester Green Cab offers wheelchair accessible vehicles on their website, they don't, in fact, have any in their fleet. When GoLocalWorcester called to ask them about it, the person on the phone said, "We don't have any of those. You're thinking of Red Cab."

The Cost of Medallions Are the Problem

The taxi system in Worcester is monitored by the Worcester Police Department and regulated by the city's municipal government. According to the city's regulations, "All taxi vehicles require the ownership of a medallion. The medallion authorizes specific operational practices such as picking up a fare that hails a taxicab on any public street or standing in a designated taxi stand."

The medallions aren't cheap. Medallions are a certificate of public necessity and convenience (CPNC) and owners of cab companies need to purchase these from the city in order to sell them to drivers/owners. Medallions can cost upwards of $50,000 in the city ($700,000 in Boston).

"These companies won't pay for the medallions. They refuse to. They just won't do it," said Bilotta.

In Cambridge, the city offered companies a free medallion to add a wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) to their fleet if the company paid to convert an existing vehicle to a WAV. No taxi companies participated, but Cambridge managed to allow these companies to apply for a medallion to operate a WAV, and ended up awarding four medallions.

WRTA is Only Available Alternative

For the above cities, the accessible taxi service is available 24/7. In Worcester, the Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) does provide wheelchair accessible transportation, but it is a shared ride service and only operates during the same days and times, and in the same areas, as the WRTA bus route.

WRTA's ADA Service

The WRTA service is called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Paratransit Service. This service operates within the requirements of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations. In order to access this service, individuals must apply and be approved as eligible under the ADA's guidelines.

The ADA service works in 3/4 mile from the regular bus route and ceases operation at 11:30 PM on weekdays and 9 PM on weekends.

Bilotta, who uses a wheelchair, believes the ADA service is inconvenient for people his age that like to stay out later than 9 PM. “When it comes to ADA stuff, it’s not so much discrimination. You have to be recognized first to even be discriminated against," said Bilotta. "I've been stranded and waiting for hours on some nights because the ADA service has stopped and the taxi service is either down, occupied, or the driver has already gone home."

Where's Uber's WAV in Worcester?

The ride-sharing service Uber has been in Worcester for nearly a year now, but provides little to no services to the disabled. In fact, Uber, and fellow ride-sharing service Lyft, are being sued for discrimination across the country. In one case, Uber's defense even states "Uber is not required to provide accessible vehicles or accommodations." This comes even when Uber and Lyft are pushing to be recognized as legitimate transportation services.

In September 2014, Uber announced its WAV (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle) service in Philadelphia. At its announcement, Uber wrote on its website "Historically, transportation options throughout Philadelphia have been severely limited for people with disabilities. There are 1,600 taxi medallions that support a city of 1.5 million people. Of these, only seven are wheelchair-accessible."

"I bet that service hasn't come here yet because there isn't enough of a demand. Plus, the taxi companies are cry babies and run to city hall every time competition comes to town. They did that when the livery cars came in a few years back," said Bilotta.

Like Philly, Worcester has a drastically low amount of these vehicles for a large population.

A spokesperson for Uber told GoLocalWorcester, "I can tell you that we're continuing to explore options in the Worcester area and finding ways to make Uber more accessible to everyone."

Bilotta said, "Uber doesn't have any wheelchair accessible vehicles in the city. If you need one, you would probably have to order an Uber from Boston. And who really wants to do that?"