Determined not to be outgunned again, disability advocates, yellow-cab operators and others are planning their own campaign starting in June to press for regulatory "parity" between taxis and app-based ride-hail companies like Uber.
Uber, a company that is now valued over $60 billion conducted a well funded lobbying campaign last year to defeat Mayor de Blasio’s effort to cap the number of Uber cars in the city. The lobbying highlighted the number of minority Uber drivers in the city: “The company held a total of nine “driver appreciation” [...]
“Uber is once again looking to end run any accountability for directly supplying accessible vehicles for New Yorkers. Instead, the $51 billion company is cooking up a complicated scheme that allows it to avoid complying with regulations that now govern NY taxis-thus allowing Uber to maintain the fiction that it’s not a cab company.”
“The city council should not be allying itself with a company that has spit in the face of some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers. It is passed time for the legislature to pass into law an accessibility mandate for Uber that is comparable to the 50% target mandated for NYC taxis.”
The entry of Uber into the local car-for-hire businesses around the country has created a tension between the company, its taxi competitors, and the rules that localities have promulgated to regulate for-hire-vehicles. In all of these localities Uber has attempted to create as many exemptions from the regulations for itself, claiming that it is a [...]
From Re/Code: Lyft is gaining momentum in a key market for the company and its more established competitor, Uber. According to figures the company provided to Re/code, Lyft has seen its driver pool grow by a factor of four and has seen six times the number of active weekly riders in New York since May 2015. [...]
From the Journal News: ALBANY -- Disability advocates are set to protest Uber on Tuesday at the state Capitol, calling on upstate mayors to stop supporting the company for not catering to disabled riders. The advocates, hailing from Rochester, the Capital Region and other upstate cities, claim that the for-hire vehicle company has no wheelchair [...]
From New York Slant: In 2014, federal Judge George B. Daniels signed off on an agreement to make New York City’s yellow taxi fleet wheelchair-accessible by 2020, calling it “one of the most significant acts of inclusion in this city since Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.” But just two years later, there are still for-hire [...]
From Wired: NADINA LASPINA IS looking up from under her wide-brimmed hat at the heavy grey rain clouds overhead, watching the blazing July sun play peekaboo behind them, and worrying about whether she’s dressed appropriately for the weather. It’s too hot and humid for a raincoat when the sun is out, but when the clouds [...]
In the fight against Uber expansion, taxi drivers have found allies in disability advocates across New York. Stephanie Woodward is the Director of Advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester.
