HAIL STORM!

Disable2 rile2 by handicap-cab ruling

A FEDERAL APPEALS court ruled Thursday that the city doesn’t have to ensure every yellow taxi is wheelchair-accessible, delivering a blow to disabled riders who argued the law requires it convert its entire fleet.

The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was a major victory for Mayor Bloomberg who has forged ahead with the city’s Taxi of Tomorrow plan without mandating all cabs be wheelchair-accessible.

The court reversed a lower court order that banned the Taxi & Limousine Commission from issuing new medallions until the city came up with a court-approved plan to provide more taxi access for the disabled.

Only 233 of the city’s more than 13,000 medallion taxis are wheelchair-accessible — about 2% of the fleet.

In its decision, the Second Circuit ruled that TLC was not obligated to make all cabs accessible to wheelchair-bound riders under the federal American with Disabilities Act.

“[The] plaintiffs’ claim is that there are too few accessible taxis in New York City and that the TLC should use its regulatory authority to require that more taxis be accessible,” said Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs in a 29-page decision.

But Jacobs said the city is simply a regulator of taxi licenses while the cabs are privately owned.

“It may be that there is a failure to provide meaningful access to taxis for persons with disabilities. But if so, it is a failure of the taxi industry in New York City,” he wrote.

“This ruling is consistent with h common sense and the practical needs of both the taxi industry and the disabled, and nd we will continue our efforts to assist disabled riders,” Mayor Bloomberg said in hail- ing the decision.

A leading advocate for the disabled said that this was a narrow victory for the city.

The lawsuit didn’t argue that the city’s taxi plans violated Title 3 of the ADA, Assemblyman Micah Kellner said.

That provision says that a van used as a taxi that carries less than eight people and is put on the road after 1992 must be handicapped-accessible.

The city has picked the Nissan NV200 to be the Taxi of Tomorrow, and Kellner has asked the Department of Justice to make a ruling that the vehicle be wheelchair-accessible. The city contends the NV200 i is not a van.

“I’m ex expecting the Justice Departm Department will say a van is a van is a van and the Taxi of Tomo Tomorrow is a van, and every ne new cab put on the road und under the Taxi of Tomorrow program must be wheelchair-accessible,” Kellner said.