[nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled

Buddy Brannan buddy at brannan.name
Sun Dec 5 21:23:16 UTC 2010 

Ever tried to get a cab in NYC, with a guide dog? If it's anything like Dallas, or countless other big cities, regardless what the law says, it ain't always that easy. If you can have an arrangement with a particular driver, group of drivers, or company, it's often the difference between getting where you're going and waiting for hours while cabs pass you up because they don't want your dirty, unclean, etc. etc. dog in their cab. Like Isaid, doesn't matter what the law says, the fact of the matter is, cab access is something we're still fighting. And too often, we have to be pragmatic about the thing and make our arrangements the way this guy has. Whatever you think about how this guy should be making his way wherever, this is a really stupid policy on the part of the transit authority, anyway. Seems fairly arbitrary, too. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Dec 5, 2010, at 4:16 PM, Jordan Gallacher wrote:

> It's an issue now, and he needs to make a choice either to walk to where
> that cab company can pick him up at or change cab companies.  If he has
> other disabilities then this would be a different situation.
> Jordan
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Cindy Ray
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 2:52 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
> 
> When the guy chose to use that cab company, this was not an issue. You guys,
> 
> this is really a rude way to treat a person. Suppose you wanted his guy to 
> come into the Federation and suppose he had joined this thread and saw these
> 
> condemning messages. If you were that guy, would that make you want to be a 
> member? You would think we were a bunch of blind snobs. I know this because 
> I've treated people like this in my past. I could have helped them more if I
> 
> had been compassionate and tried to find a way to understand where they are 
> and then try to help the person.
> 
> Cindy
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jordan Gallacher" <jgallacher1987 at gmail.com>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 2:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
> 
> 
> Peter,
> I agree with you completely.  I bet if the route is done a few times, the
> dog will pick it up and automatically go in the right direction.  For
> example, I can be about a half mile away from my dorm, and September will
> get me back to it without any input from me.Another thing too is that just
> becayse tiy are blind doesn't entitle you to any special treatment.  If you
> freely choose to use a cab company that doesn't have a contract, well, you
> should have to do what everyone else does.
> Jordan
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Peter Donahue
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 10:02 AM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
> 
> Good morning everyone,
> 
>    I thought he got a guide dog to enhance his ability to travel
> independently including negotiating his way from the fairy terminal to the
> cab pick-up area. Johnny and I deal with similar situations all the time.
> It's no big deal. If you have a mobility issue that's one thing but an
> able-bodied blind individual including those accompanied by guide dogs
> should be able to manage such routes with little or no trouble.
> 
> Peter Donahue
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:24 AM
> Subject: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
> 
> 
> New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
> Published: Sunday, December 05, 2010, 5:53 AM     Updated:
> Sunday, December 05, 2010, 6:01 AM
> Jeff Harrell
> 
> <http://blog.silive.com/around_the_block_column/2010/12/new_city_
> tlc_cab_policy_blind_to_needs_of_disabled.html>
> http://blog.silive.com/around_the_block_column/2010/12/new_city_t
> lc_cab_policy_blind_to_needs_of_disabled.html
> 
> STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's tough enough getting to a cab outside
> the St. George Ferry Terminal with your health fully intact.
> 
> 
> 
> Staten Island Advance/Hilton FloresLivery cabs not under contract
> with the city line up on Richmond Terrace, waiting for ferry
> commuters.
> 
> Just making your way into and out of the terminal involves
> following a convoluted path filled with cones, barrel barriers
> and signs telling you to go there, turn here, and oh well ... too
> bad if you end up at a dead-end.
> 
> None of the signs wishes you luck if you're disabled and have a
> special arrangement with a cab company that isn't one of the
> city's Chosen Four allowed to pick up and drop off commuters on
> the Ferry Terminal's property anymore.
> 
> Just ask Dana Avant.
> 
> Dana is blind and totally dependent on his new guide dog to get
> around on foot, a black Lab named Aidan he just partnered with
> two weeks ago.
> 
> When Dana needs a ride from the ferry to his apartment in Fox
> Hills, the 62-year-old retired child welfare social worker calls
> ahead to Grant City Car Service to be there waiting when he gets
> off the boat.
> 
> "I use Grant City all the time, and they're very nice, very
> courteous," Dana says. "They say, 'Call us when you're on the
> boat and we'll be waiting for you.'"
> 
> Last Friday when Dana got off the boat, Grant City couldn't make
> it.
> 
> "They told me they were no longer allowed to come into the
> terminal," Dana recalls.
> 
> Instead, the cab sat out on Richmond Terrace - a hike, several
> skips and numerous jumps from the terminal for even the heartiest
> of commuters with 20/20 vision.
> 
> 
> 0
> Share  0 Comments
> Staten Island Advance/Irving SilversteinDana Avant, ouside his
> home in Fox Hills with his service dog. He's blind and having
> trouble with taxis not being allowed on ferry termnal property.
> (Staten Island Advance/Irving Silverstein)
> "How in the hell am I going to know where that is if I can't
> see?" Dana asks, still exasperated at the lunacy of the
> situation. "I couldn't get out there if I had to ... and I had
> to."
> 
> Standing blind in a panic with Aidan by his side, Dana received
> assistance from a passerby who helped him flag down a cab.
> 
> The following Monday, Dana phoned the non-emergency 311 number to
> complain. What he dialed into was a bureaucratic circle of
> goofiness that made the Ferry Terminal's parking lot look like a
> straight answer.
> 
> The 311 operator told Dana to call DOT or TLC, the city's Taxi &
> Limousine Commission.
> 
> "They gave me the service number at the Ferry Terminal," Dana
> says.
> 
> Dana thanked the phone reps for playing pass the buck and called
> the Ferry Terminal.
> 
> The man who picked up assured Dana the honchos in charge were
> doing everything to make the Terminal accessible for the blind,
> including the installation of Braille directional signs
> designated by "chirping birds." Dana was told to keep his ears
> peeled for the chirping birds.
> 
> "I never heard any chirping birds," Dana says.
> 
> Then, the terminal guy got terminally chirpy with Dana.
> 
> "He said, 'We have nothing to do with this. Try TLC. They're the
> ones that made the ruling.'"
> 
> Dana's snicker over going 'round and 'round for a ride home by a
> cab company he deals with regularly is worth a thousand chirps.
> 
> "I don't know what bureaucrat thought this up," Dana says.
> 
> This, meaning, the city's contract that only allows taxis from
> four companies - Clove Lakes, Island Wide, DeJoy's and Newport -
> near the ferry ramp.
> 
> All other car services, including Grant City Car Service,
> Access-A-Ride Taxi and others that accommodate the disabled, are
> prohibited from driving on the ferry ramp because the city's
> contract forbids outside competition from picking up fares on
> terminal property.
> 
> "It's a public place," insists a lone United Cabs cabbie parked
> on Richmond Terrace Tuesday afternoon waiting in vain for anybody
> to hoof it out to the street through a drizzling rain looking for
> a ride. "Why do you have a private contract that keeps us out?"
> 
> Allan J. Fromberg, TLC's deputy commissioner of public
> information, says the contract keeps "gypsy cabs" from converging
> on people during the terminal's rush hours and transporting them
> in vehicles that are unlicensed, uninsured, uninspected and
> driven by cabbies who have not been drug-tested.
> 
> "It was like the wild, wild west," Fromberg says of the taxi
> free-for-all at the terminal prior to the contract.
> 
> Since prohibiting cab companies from picking up pre-arranged
> disabled passengers at a convenient spot outside the terminal
> borders on the absurd, Fromberg says MTA is compiling a list of
> "black car services" not stipulated in the contract that would be
> allowed to pick up and drop off on the property.
> 
> A DOT spokeswoman says those cabs, which would be marked to let
> the terminal's enforcement personnel know they are "legit," will
> be able to pick up and drop off passengers at a designated area
> "at the former taxi drop-off/pickup ramp."
> 
> "We're going to make sure there's a place they can do it,"
> Fromberg says. "We just have to dot the I's and cross the T's. We
> have an obligation to make sure that the car they hop into is
> insured, inspected and safe."
> 
> That's fine with Dana, as long as he and his guide dog don't have
> to feel their way out to Richmond Terrace to hunt down a ride
> home.
> 
> "Suppose somebody has orthopedic or mobility problems," Dana
> asks. "This could disenfranchise the disabled community."
> 
> Even a blind man can see that.
> 
> 
> 
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