How would a driver know if the mobility device fits or not, though? Is there a menu on Lyft that lets you pick the size of the device so you know it will fit? And how would you see the number inside the taxi cab to call and report if you aren't being given the opportunity to get in? Was the cab you hailed an accessible one? Are they all supposed to be able to carry a mobility device now?
For Lyft, the rider is told immediately in the app
exactly what vehicle is coming to pick them up— make, model, etc. Most people know whether their device will fit in a standard car trunk or hatchback. Lyft vehicles tend to be cars like Toyota Camry or Prius, or such. Occasionally, the vehicle is a cuv/crv (small suv).
Things such as:
- folding travel scooters (often smaller than a double stroller when folded)
- Compact Scooters which come apart and easily fit in a normal sized trunk
- standard folding wheelchairs
- transport chairs
- Rollators
- Walkers
These are all examples of mobility devices that a user knows will fit, and that drivers have been known to refuse… even when the user states that it
will fit easily, and that they or a member of their party will be responsible to lift it. If a rider knows their equipment is unlikely to fit in a particular vehicle & cancels immediately,
before the car arrives, there usually won’t be a penalty. If one is charged, a quick email to CS, will get it refunded.
If a Lyft driver (and I think Uber… but I’m not as familiar with their policies) has a
legitimate reason to decline to transport someone,
they should be canceling the ride from within their app, and not telling the rider to do it. Drivers know they’ll be penalized for canceling a ride once they’ve accepted it unless they have a true reason to do so (arriving to find a rider with enough large luggage to move house in, a drunk or belligerent or abusive passenger, etc)
so they tell the rider to cancel and resubmit the request knowing that the rider will be penalized, because the driver is going to say ?he arrived. That’s not allowed.
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Now as to the NYC taxis… the phone number to report a problem can be found online, on the door panel (although it isn’t prominent) or on the placard inside. The cab/medallion # is clearly displayed on the trunk as well as on the interior signage.
In my case, my sister was in a foldable, standard wheelchair. Easily fit in the trunk of the cab… we’d done it a couple times before, including from the airport with all the luggage.
No, we did not call for an accessible taxi… I hailed one just like anyone else on the street.
It was only a problem for that one driver. We did have another ask us if the wheelchair folded, but we said yes, and he said it would have to go in the trunk (as opposed to in the backseat with us… do-able with one passenger, but not really with 2) and that was the end of it.
My biggest concern & complaint about the one who refused us was the way he sped away from the curb as soon as he saw me waving my sister over. I had already opened the back door and was beginning to lean in to ask him to open the trunk, when he saw her, shouted “
NO CHAIR!”, and took off like a bat out of Hades. I jumped back just in time to keep my foot from getting run over. He didn’t even wait for me to close the door— it slammed as he sped away!
I read a while back, that more and more minivan taxis are on the streets in NYC. These are presumably accessible (or at least a lot of them are, iirc). It’s possible to call for an accessible taxi, of course… but there is a push to get enough of these on the road, that anyone who needs one can simply hail one just like anyone else.
I have not been back to NYC in several years, so I have not seen this first hand, but watching the streets in the background of Good Morning America, or The Today Show, you can definitely see that there are a *lot* of yellow minivans on the road… so unless it’s suddenly all the rage to drive taxi lookalikes in NYC, one would have to say that it looks like it *is* getting better.
Good thing I didn’t have a leg in… You better believe I got his medallion # and reported him! }
