Austin transit strike causes suspension of accessible cab rides

From the Shortcuts section of the Austin American-Statesman in Texas:

Capital Metro for the duration of the transit strike has suspended most of its taxicab voucher program used by people whose disabilities make them unable to take regular buses.

The agency says its a matter of fairness. Cabs generally are used by people who can walk, many of them blind, who can easily get in and out of a cab. People who can’t walk and must use wheelchairs typically can’t use cabs and instead ride on Capital Metro vans set up to accommodate wheelchairs.

The drivers of those vans, other than those who have chosen to cross picket lines, are on strike.

“It’s not our practice to pick and choose who gets service,” said Capital Metro spokeswoman Misty Whited when asked why the voucher program has been suspended. “It wouldn’t be fair.”

She said some taxi vouchers are being issued on a case-by-case basis, that 130 vouchers were approved Wednesday and that 70 vouchers had been approved so far today.

Whited was asked how denying rides to a blind person might help a mobility-impaired person who is getting no rides during the strike.

“We can’t not respond to the mobility-impaired,” she said. “We’re not happy we have to do this.”

Do they have to do it, or is it a policy choice?

“It is our policy,” she said.

Hannah Riddering, a cab driver who carries several disabled people to work (and their children to school) under the voucher program, pointed out that during the one-day strike in 2005 Capital Metro’s policy was different.

“They did not cancel vouchers during the first strike,” Riddering said.

The agency this spring attempted to severely curtail the taxi voucher program, but reinstated it under a judge’s order. After several public hearings with people with disabilities, the program has continued and the agency is pondering what the policy long-term should be.

Riddering noted that the sedans provided by a Capital Metro subcontractor, a subsidiary of Austin cab, is still providing rides during the strike. Riddering said that keeping those vehicles on the street, given that they have the same limitations as cabs, might be considered unfair as well.

Under the voucher program, people who qualify for rides, can take a cab and pay only if the ride exceeds six miles, other than a base fee of 70 cents. The cost for the voucher to Capital Metro varies from $8.55 for a ride under two miles to a maximum of $16 for a ride up to six miles. That subsidy by Capital Metro makes such rides affordable.

Ed Kargbo, Yellow Cab’s general manager in Austin, said his company has 455 cabs, including 23 that are wheelchair-accessible. He was asked if Capital Metro’s decision about vouchers during the strike might have been done to save money.

“I don’t know that they’re doing it to save money,” Kargbo said. “But it’s a position they’re using in the negotiations.”

Riddering regularly takes Edwin Kunz to his state job, she said, dropping off two of his children at school on the way. Kunz qualifies for two vouchers, Riddering said, one for his job and one for the kids, so the ride normally costs him nothing.

But Wednesday and today, she said, he has paid her $25 in cash for the morning ride. He is then finding co-workers or family to take the children home from school and Kunz home from work.

“It’s an enormous amount of money coming out of a working man’s pocket,” Riddering said.

In other strike news, Capital Metro said this morning that 167 employees covered by the collective bargaining agreement had reported to work by 7 a.m., increase of more than 86 percent from the 80 or so who came to work at the beginning of the strike’s first day.

There are about 850 workers covered by the union contract, meaning that as of early this morning about 20 percent are not participating in the strike.

The agency now has 16 regular routes running, up from 13 on the strike’s first day, and has increased the frequency of buses from at least once every 45 minutes to at least once every 30 minutes.