Tweaking the Houston rideshare ordinance

From KUHF:

Uber

A task force looking into improvements to the city of Houston’s ordinance regulating vehicles for hire, including Uber and other ride-share companies, made recommendations to a city council committee Tuesday.

A key proposal is to adjust the requirement that 3 percent of a transportation company’s fleet provide wheelchair access.

Toby Cole, who chaired the Transportation Accessibility Task Force, said that number should apply to companies with 20 or more vehicles.

“For fleet with two to 19 vehicles, during the 2017 year, they would be required to have one WAV vehicle – which would be a wheelchair accessible vehicle,” Cole said. “And single operators after 2018, when they brought their next car on service, would be required to have one WAV vehicle.”

Alternatively, companies could opt to contract with drivers of wheelchair accessible vehicles.

Council will debate these potential changes in September. Access for disabled riders was a major point of contention during the Uber/Lyft debate, and Uber initiated a new service a year ago to address that. There have been two lawsuits filed locally against Uber over compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; I don’t at this time know where either of them stand. Whether this change would address or resolve any of the issues in those complaints is unclear to me. I hope there will be some more coverage of this when Council debates the proposal.

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