NYC Taxi Service: Bloomberg as Bigot

New York City taxi service is unique and in many cases reflects the culture of the city itself. If you use a wheelchair NYC taxi service is on par with Third World countries. It is uniformly bad--bad as in biblically bad. Taxi drivers as a group are uniformly hostile to any person with a disability. A special disdain exists if you use a wheelchair or have a guide dog and exhibit the temerity to hail a cab. Lots of tricks are employed, required really, to get a taxi in NYC. My friend Steve Kuusisto who uses a guide dog gets hotel doormen to hail a cab for him. I too have used this ploy. I prefer to ask a well dressed man or woman to hail a cab for me. I wait in hiding between parked cars. When the taxi stops I emerge and grab the door so the taxis cannot pull away. I have been cursed at, screamed at, and been called a bastard in many different languages. Gee, I get the feeling I am not a valued customer.

NYC taxi driver hostility has not changed much in the last twenty years. On the rare instance I hail a taxi I assume the driver will be hostile. Taxi driver hostility directed at people with a disability is significantly worse in my opinion. The increased hostility stems from the Bloomberg administration public and baseless opposition to making the taxi fleet, the so called taxi of tomorrow, wheelchair accessible.  Bloomberg has made some outlandish statements that are devoid of reality. My favorite was Bloomberg's suggestion that hailing cab from the street was too dangerous for a person that used a wheelchair. I also heard Bloomberg state it was too costly to make the taxis accessible. Worse yet, taxis would be heavier and less fuel efficient. Bloomberg noted taxi drivers in accessible taxis would be very far away from the passenger and would lose out on tips. None of Bloomberg's statements made to date have a foundation in truth. If you doubt me I suggest you read pretty much anything Simi Linton has written. She has spear-headed the opposition to Bloomberg and earned my utmost respect. Go Simi go! 

This morning I was surfing the internet and came across the following: http://www.accessibledispatch.com/ This site is fantasy land. It is so preposterous I do not even know where to begin. Accessible Dispatch is a slick little site. If you had never been to NYC or hailed a taxi in any city in the world one could think hey this is cool. Phrases such a "the city awaits you" and "its about inclusion" are highlighted on the welcome page. Under How it works is the following: "Once our service is requested, we will dispatch one of New York City's wheelchair accessible taxicabs directly to your pick up location in Manhattan. Accessible Dispatch is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and requires absolutely no advanced reservations, although you may place an advance service order if you so wish. There are currently 233 yellow wheelchair accessible taxicabs operating in the city of New York". A person that uses a wheelchair can send a text, phone call, use an app or order a taxi on line. Here is what the website and Bloomberg gloss over. There are over 23,000 taxis in New York City. 233 are accessible. The odds of finding an accessible taxi going by you are less than 2% In Bloomberg logic what is the best way to address this gross inequity? Create a dispatch service. Really? Somehow I do not feel ever so special. 

Imagine this: You need a cab. It is April. It is Friday at 6:30PM. A huge thunderstorm is approaching. It is windy and cold. You are near Madison Square Garden and the Knicks are playing. Taxi after taxi is blowing by you. And what does the Bloomberg administration suggest you do? Call or text for a taxi. How long will one wait? Um, till hell freezes over. Honestly, think about this scenario. Really think hard. Consider the ADA was passed into law 22 years ago. You use a wheelchair and according to the Federal Government have the same civil rights as all those bipedal people with their hands up hailing a taxi. Taxi after taxi stops for bipedal people. What are we people who use a wheelchair supposed to do? Call or text for a taxi? Use an app? Give me a break. Have you ever tried to use 311? Good luck with an endless chain of menus that go nowhere.  What gets me the most is the leap in logic made by the Bloomberg administration. Who uses a wheelchair? Meek jobless wenches such as myself happy for any handout the almighty bipedal humans will dole out. Our lives cannot compare to the honorable Mayor Bloomberg. And yes there I go again. The bitter cripple with a chip on my shoulder who wants to takeout all his anger out on others. What is not considered is where that anger is coming from. Could it be that I get the shaft every time I try to hail a taxi, get on a plane or a train? Could it be that my civil rights are violated virtually every time I go outside my home? This is where my anger stems from--commonplace and socially sanctioned bias. The word used to describe the sort of civil rights violations I experience is bigotry. Am I mad? You bet your ass I am. My anger has nothing to do with my paralysis or use of a wheelchair. My anger does not come from some pathological form of narcissism. It is never all about me. It is about the next person with a disability and the fervent wish that person does not encounter the same needless social and architectural barriers I had to dismantle. 

Addendum: Please see comments for correction from Taxis for All director.