Accessible Taxicabs Will Roll

Wheelchair users in the District will have a new way to get around starting in January, thanks to a decision yesterday to fund 21 wheelchair-accessible cabs. Until now, wheelchair users have had to call one of two suburban cab companies, and the taxis are not always available.

"In the District, for emergency evacuations, quick trips, somebody's wheelchair breaks down, what are you going to do?" asked Bobby Coward, 44, a quadriplegic who uses an electric wheelchair. "You don't have an option. So a cab is that solution."

Coward has agitated for accessible cabs and has worked on an accessibility task force under D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), whose Committee on Public Works and the Environment oversees the D.C. Taxicab Commission.

The decision, made by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, will use $1 million in federal funds to purchase 21 accessible vans and create a centralized dispatch center. Three cab companies will get seven vans each and will pay about 30 percent of the cost of the cabs.

The decision puts the District in line with comparable-size and larger cities, said Wendy Klancher, senior transportation planner with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

"The hope is that once these companies get up and running, the business will be self-sustaining and they won't need any more funding," Klancher said.

Roy Spooner, general manager for Yellow Cab Co. of D.C., said he doesn't expect the accessible taxis to be profitable. "We feel it's something that we need to do as part of our social service offering," he said.

Liberty Cab and the Mohebbi Group also will have the accessible vans.

Not everybody on the transportation board was convinced of the need for the vans.

"If these [taxi] companies were being hit by requests, they'd have come up with something already," said Charles A. Jenkins, a commissioner in Frederick County, who was one of two members of the 42-member board to oppose the proposal.

Leon J. Swain, chairman of the Taxicab Commission, called the decision "a real victory for D.C." The commission will contribute about $200,000 to the effort.

Though all buses and Metro stations in the District are wheelchair accessible, station elevators are often broken, and bus drivers won't always stop for people in wheelchairs when the bus is crowded, Coward said. There are also MetroAccess paratransit vans, but they must be booked at least 24 hours in advance, and not all wheelchair users are eligible to use them.