More wheelchair-accessible taxis urged for Worcester

April 07-- Apr. 7--WORCESTER -- London has approximately 21,000. Boston has 100. But in Worcester, there is only one wheelchair-accessible taxicab, and members of the local disabled community say one is not enough.

"For a city our size to not have accessible cab transportation, it's crazy," said Robert Bilotta, chairman of the Worcester Commission on Disabilities and the coordinator of the local Assistive Technology Regional Center for Easterseals Massachusetts. "We're really underserved. It's a quality-of-life issue; we're not able to enjoy Worcester."

Worcester has 110 taxi medallions, and taxis provide on-demand, streetside service metered by the mile. A wheelchair-accessible vehicle allows a person to ride as a passenger while sitting in his or her wheelchair.

Under an agreement with the city more than a decade ago, Red Cab of Worcester was given two medallions in exchange for providing wheelchair-accessible taxis. But one of those two cabs was involved in an accident last year and is off the road, meaning only one WAV cab is available for use.

"I think it's a great service, I think it's a necessary service, and I think it's something we have to do in this community -- provide transportation for the wheelchair-bound," said Toni Donovan, owner of Red Cab. She said the second wheelchair-accessible taxi would be back on the road as soon as the insurance money comes through. "If (the community) feels there's a need, and they may, I'm absolutely not opposed to them getting more."

But the situation is leaving some members of the local disabled community feeling marooned.

Community members said that high demand means the one cab is not always available, particularly at night or when it is used for longer trips such as to Boston. The single cab also has limitations on how much weight it can carry.

And livery vehicles or Uber and Lyft are not an option.

The city also has 308 livery licenses (livery vehicles must be reserved in advance), but none of their vehicles are wheelchair-accessible, according to members of the commission. And they say there are no local Uber or Lyft drivers who can accommodate passengers using wheelchairs. The Worcester Regional Transit Authority has wheelchair-accessible buses and offers wheelchair-accessible paratransit service, but the latter must be reserved 24 hours in advance and outside the city is only available within three-quarters of a mile of bus routes. Paratransit riders also must meet eligibility requirements and fill out an application.

"The city paid for medallions and in return the company would provide accessible transportation," said Mike Kennedy, Americans with Disabilities Act access and advocacy coordinator at the Center for Living & Working Inc. in Worcester. "They're not living up to their end of the bargain."

And this has left disabled individuals in some unfortunate situations.

Nancy Garr-Colzie related how on one night returning from a concert in Boston, she wheeled down Cambridge Street with her sister driving behind her -- her sister's car lights flashing for protection.

"We've all been stranded by Red Cab," said Mr. Bilotta.

And members of the disabled community say the lack of transportation options is fundamentally unfair.

According to a 2013 white paper from the MassMobility Project funded by a Federal Transit Administration grant to the state, the ADA prohibits discrimination in taxi service, stating that if a person with a disability can ride in a taxi, the taxi driver cannot refuse service because of that disability. But if the person cannot ride in the taxi because he or she uses a wheelchair and the wheelchair and passenger will not fit, it appears the wheelchair-using rider is out of luck.

And ride-share companies have compounded the issue.

Disability Rights Advocates, a nonprofit disability rights organization based in New York and California, has filed class-action lawsuits against Uber and Lyft alleging the companies have violated the ADA by not providing WAV service for Bay Area residents, the Daily Californian newspaper in Berkeley, California, reported April 1.

"I'm not sure there's a law that taxi companies have to provide a set number of taxis," said Joe Bellil, vice president of public affairs and youth services at Easterseals and a wheelchair user.

"We respect businesses and want them to make money, but at the same time we want to have access."

Mr. Bilotta agreed.

"We should be able to get equal access to transportation," said Mr. Bilotta. "So many people don't know it's an issue."

Ms. Garr-Colzie concurred.

"There is life after dark for people with disabilities," said Ms. Garr-Colzie. She noted that Boston had wheelchair-accessible Ubers. "They're not a unicorn."

But getting an additional wheelchair-accessible cab is more difficult than just buying another van. It's an investment. Jayna Turchek, director of human rights and disabilities for the city, notes that transportation budgets aren't exactly flush right now.

"We need to have vehicles, but there's an expenditure that has to be laid out," said Ms. Turchek. "Not everyone has a wheelchair-accessible vehicle with a lift ... it costs a lot of money."

Indeed, Ms. Donovan estimated it cost $40,000 to $50,000 to get a new wheelchair-accessible vehicle.

"It's a nonprofitable side of the business," Ms. Donovan said. "Insurance (for a WAV) is even higher, but the fare is the same as a sedan."

She also questioned whether there was the demand for more service in Worcester.

"Pretty much we meet the needs," Ms. Donovan said, although noting that loading and unloading can take longer so the company encourages wheelchair-using riders to schedule in advance and sometimes must adjust pickup times. "Most of our clients are very happy with the service, very happy with the drivers ... but whatever (wheelchair-using customers) want we should do it."

But transportation is always a chicken-versus-the-egg scenario. Mr. Bilotta, for instance, said he hasn't used the cab for some time because it is not always available. If it were more available, he said he might use it.

So the disabled community is taking actions into its own hands.

For the past year and a half, members of the community have been meeting to try and get the city and Uber to increase local wheelchair-accessible transportation options. The group, which calls itself the Accessible, Affordable, and Available On-Demand Transportation Task Force, met last week at the Denholm Building to map out their next steps.

Ideas included trying to find and recruit a driver who already has a WAV to sign up for Uber, or working with nursing homes or rehabilitation hospitals to make WAVs available to the public when not in use privately.

Mr. Bellil reported that he has been talking with Uber about doing a pilot program similar to one in Boston with Uber and Lyft and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

"Worcester's growing, this kind of transportation on demand is needed," Mr. Bellil said. "But if we just get expensive, on-demand vehicles, nobody's going to use them ... we need to think about ways to help make it more affordable for folks."

The MBTA established a pilot program in October 2016 that partners with Lyft and Uber to offer on-demand ride-share services to its customers who use The Ride, its shared-ride, door-to-door paratransit service. The program has been successful. Starting with just about 200 customers, the number of customers is growing by roughly 5 percent each month and the service has provided 170,000 trips, according to Ben Schutzman, chief of paratransit services at the T.

But the T saw fewer WAV trips than it expected during the pilot, and the MBTA learned that WAVs are not widely owned by ride-share drivers because of high costs.

So on Monday, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the T expanded the pilot for a year to provide Uber and Lyft with a $24-per-hour subsidy for every hour that wheelchair-accessible vehicles are available for on-demand use. It is estimated that it costs $48 per hour to have a WAV on the road, and the year-long pilot program is expected to cost the MBTA $2.4 million. Its goal is to quadruple the hours a WAV is available and will measure success based on factors including WAV reliability and completed WAV trips a month.

"By incentivizing (ride-share companies) to do the right thing, this pilot program will introduce a subsidy to help meet supply and demand, and this will at the end of the day help to get more WAVs on the road to reliably deliver customers from point A to point B," said Mr. Schutzman.

The pilot will not be available in Worcester -- it is limited to the communities served by The Ride -- but "MassDOT and the MBTA will explore similar pilot options for regions outside the service area if this pilot is deemed successful," MassDOT and the T said in a press release announcing the program.

And on Thursday, representatives of the Commission on Disability met with City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. and WRTA Administrator Dennis J. Lipka to discuss the commission's concerns. It identified needs for more on demand transportation options, and the city manager will be assembling a working group to compile best practices and recommendations.

Meanwhile, disability advocates are trying to emphasize the importance of the issue of wheelchair-accessible taxis -- not just for riders who use wheelchairs but for everybody.

"Anyone of us could be one day away from using a wheelchair," said Bob Bureau, who attended the meeting last week.

And Worcester has many amenities to offer.

"There are lots of reasons to come to Worcester, it's a great place to live," Mr. Bureau continued.

And then Mr. Bilotta interjected.

"And we need to make sure we can all access it equally," he said.

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