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Cab Company Sued For Allegedly Not Serving Wheelchair-bound Customers (pictures)
On July 24, the Texas Civil Rights Project filed what have become its annual Americans With Disability Act lawsuits, presenting 30 different allegations that companies within the state have violated federal disability laws. Among the 30, the TCRP named Austin taxi giant Yellow Cab and transportation network companies Uber and Lyft, the three companies most mentioned in the ongoing development of this city’s eventual transportation network ecosystem. (The network companies’ services are informally called “ridesharing,” but essentially they facilitate vehicles-for-hire.)
All three lawsuits are similar; the ones filed against Uber and Lyft are virtually identical. In each case, the suits allege that the companies failed to serve wheelchair-bound customers. Uber and Lyft (the two San Francisco-based TNCs currently operating in Austin without authorization) each sent rides to requestors within 15 minutes, but neither dispatched any automobiles configured for wheelchair access, and thus couldn’t provide services. (The drivers recommended the rejected customers try a taxicab.) Yellow Cab Austin, the largest taxi company in the city by nearly 300 vehicles, couldn’t send one of its 28 licensed wheelchair accessible vehicles to two different customers – allegedly not an usual occurrence – and thus never bothered to show up. MOREHERE
