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centers, tenant association meetings, and community board meetings all over the five boroughs on how to report a
service refusal. OOI has also had Days of Action, where TLC staff have visited transportation hubs and TLC
driver hot spots to inform the public and drivers about service refusals. The Office of Inclusion recognizes that
New York City’s greatest attribute is its diversity (of residents and visitors alike) and is working to reduce and
ultimately eliminate service refusals.
Driver Education
In 2019, TLC expanded and standardized its requirements to teach the 24-Hour TLC Driver License Education
Course, creating an application process that allows TLC to select the best qualified education providers.
Curriculum includes topics such as TLC rules that impact drivers the most, an overview of New York City
geography, and an introduction to Vision Zero with tips to protect themselves, passengers, and pedestrians.
Drivers also receive instruction on customer service, accessibility initiatives, and service refusals. The course is
currently available to drivers in Arabic, Bengali, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. TLC is in the
process of standardizing curriculum and requirements for other driver education courses as well.
TLC also selected a new E-testing provider, PSI, which administers the TLC driver license exam in 12 locations,
with one in each of the five boroughs. The location expansion provides drivers with more convenience and
flexibility when fulfilling their TLC driver license requirements. Several new testing benefits offered by PSI
include increased security measures, the ability to toggle between English and their preferred language while
taking an exam, and screen reading technology.
Accessibility Options in For-Hire Vehicles
Increasing access to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission’s fleet of over 130,000 licensed
vehicles is an important step to make New York City a place that is truly accessible to all of our residents and
visitors—including those who use wheelchairs.
Since 2012, wheelchair accessible green and yellow taxis have been incorporated into the City’s fleet. To reach
the For-Hire Vehicle sector—which transported a daily average of more than 760,000 passengers per day in
2018—the TLC began in 2017 to hold For-Hire Vehicle companies accountable for the requirement that they
provide equivalent service to all New Yorkers and visitors with disabilities. After months of public engagement
with members of the disability community and industry stakeholders, TLC passed rules establishing a trip
mandate requiring that a certain percentage of trips be made in wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs), but the
implementation of this rule was delayed by a lawsuit filed by several For-Hire Vehicle companies. Once the legal
challenge was resolved, TLC’s ground-breaking new rules on For-Hire Vehicle wheelchair accessibility went into
effect in January 2019. As a result of these rules, For-Hire Vehicle bases must either dispatch a percentage of
their total trips to wheelchair accessible vehicles or meet fixed response times when WAV trips are requested
through a TLC-approved dispatcher.
The TLC’s new rules on wheelchair accessibility in the For-Hire Vehicle industry include companies ranging
from small community-based car services to app-based dispatching providers like Uber, Lyft, and Via. TLC
analysis of the first six months of the program shows that the rules have succeeded in increasing the number of
WAVs on the road, and expanding For-Hire service options for passengers who use wheelchairs. Although this
outcome is a tangible gain for hundreds of thousands of passengers who use wheelchairs across the City, it also
highlights the long history of inadequate wheelchair accessible service available to passengers in For-Hire
vehicles before TLC’s rules went into effect. In its ongoing efforts to monitor and evaluate compliance with For-
Hire Vehicle wheelchair accessibility rules, moving forward TLC will focus additional resources to ensure that
all New Yorkers and visitors are aware that: (1) wheelchair accessible service must be available from all For-Hire
Vehicle bases, and (2) passengers have a right to request a WAV trip in the same manner as they can request a
non-WAV trip. To achieve equivalent service in For-Hire Vehicles, TLC will continue monitoring WAV dispatch
and base compliance, enforce compliance as necessary, and partner with industry stakeholders and passenger