What's happening
This bill requires large New York City for-hire vehicle bases to gradually convert at least 50% of their fleets to accessible vehicles, with penalties for noncompliance.
Why it matters
Major for-hire vehicle bases (those with 1,200+ affiliated vehicles) must convert at least half of their fleets to accessible vehicles within five years, signaling a significant push for disability access in NYC’s ride-hail industry.
The bill requires these bases to submit a concrete compliance plan and timeline within 90 days, meaning companies like Uber, Lyft, and large livery services will need to invest in accessible vehicle procurement, training, and infrastructure quickly.
A temporary freeze is placed on new licenses for vehicles and bases, limiting fleet expansion and new competition—unless smaller bases can show, via an environmental review, that new vehicles won’t harm the environment.
Non-compliance will be met with daily fines and the threat of license revocation, creating strong incentives for companies to prioritize accessibility or risk losing their ability to operate.
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Who cares
Passengers who need accessible vehicles
The bill would require New York City for-hire bases with at least 1,200 affiliated vehicles to make at least half their fleets accessible by January 1, 2024.
For-hire vehicle base operators and vehicle owners
The bill would impose accessibility conversion requirements on larger bases, restrict new base and vehicle licensing, and allow fines of $50 to $150 per day per car for noncompliance.
New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
The commission would review larger bases’ accessibility compliance plans and could revoke or deny licenses or renewals for violations.
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
Its environmental impact statement would determine whether bases with fewer than 1,200 affiliated vehicles could add up to 20 percent more vehicles under an exception to the licensing moratorium.
Headline styles
Require Accessible For-Hire Vehicles
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
4 Co-sponsors
1 Multi-sponsor
History
- Referred to cities
- Referred to cities
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2142
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 22, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. PICHARDO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Cities
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to for-hire vehicles; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivisions u and v of section 19-502 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 51 of the city of New York for the year 1996, are amended to read as follows:
u. "Black car" means a for-hire vehicle dispatched from a central facility whose owner holds a franchise from the corporation or other business entity which operates such central facility, or who is a member of a cooperative that operates such central facility, where such central facility has certified to the satisfaction of the commission that more than ninety percent of the central facility's for-hire business is on a payment basis other than direct cash payment by a passenger and/or covered by the New York black car operators' injury compensation fund, inc. pursuant to section one hundred sixty-dd of the executive law.
v. "Luxury limousine" means a for-hire vehicle which is dispatched from a central facility which has certified to the satisfaction of the commission that more than ninety percent of its for-hire business is on a payment basis other than direct cash payment by a passenger, for which there is maintained personal injury insurance coverage of no less than five hundred thousand dollars per accident where one person is injured and one million dollars per accident for all persons injured in that same accident, whose passengers are charged on the basis of garage to garage service and on a flat rate basis or per unit of time or mileage and/or covered by the New York black car operators' injury compensation fund, inc. pursuant to section one hundred sixty-dd of the executive law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06446-01-9
A. 2142 2
§ 2. Section 19-506 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision n to read as follows:
n. 1. For the purposes of this subdivision:
(a) "Accessible vehicle" shall have the same meaning as defined in section 19-534 of this chapter.
(b) "For-hire vehicle base station" shall mean a commission licensed base with a license base number that manages, organizes or dispatches any for-hire vehicle.
2. As of the effective date of this subdivision:
(a) Any vehicle to be newly placed into service as a for-hire vehicle affiliated with a for-hire vehicle base station to which one thousand two hundred or more for-hire vehicles are affiliated, must be an accessible vehicle until such time as the provisions of subparagraph (c) of this paragraph are satisfied.
(b) Each for-hire vehicle base station to which one thousand two hundred or more for-hire vehicles are affiliated, shall have no more than ninety days to begin to convert its affiliated vehicles that it replaces or retires to accessible vehicles until five percent of its affiliated vehicles are accessible vehicles.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subparagraph (b) of this paragraph, by January first, two thousand twenty all for-hire vehicles base stations to which one thousand two hundred or more vehicles are affiliated shall, by January first, two thousand twenty-four, convert its affiliated vehicles to accessible vehicles until at least fifty percent of all such vehicles are accessible vehicles.
Ninety days after the effective date of this subdivision, for-hire vehicle base stations to which one thousand two hundred or more vehicles are affiliated must submit a plan which shall include a schedule to comply with this subdivision, for the approval of the commission.
(d) Beginning on the effective date of this subdivision, a moratorium is hereby placed on the licensing of any new for-hire vehicle base station or for-hire vehicle provided, however, that a for-hire vehicle base station with fewer than one thousand two hundred affiliated vehicles may add affiliated vehicles until such base has an additional twenty percent of the number of affiliated vehicles it had on the effective date of this subdivision if an environmental impact statement conducted by the New York city department of environmental protection finds that adding such new vehicles will not negatively affect the environment.
3. Failure to comply with the provisions of paragraph two of this subdivision shall constitute a violation punishable by a fine of not less than fifty dollars and not more than one hundred fifty dollars per day per car from the date a violation occurred until the date such violation is cured. A violation may also be grounds for revocation or denial of licensing, or renewal thereof, under this chapter.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed repealed three years after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.