Wheelchair users in Philadelphia say cabs are not available to them

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

As darkness descended one evening last December, Filomena Renieri Ward, 52, who has muscular dystrophy, was driving her motorized wheelchair across Castor Avenue when she hit a bump and fell over onto the asphalt.

Helped up by off-duty police officers, Ward managed to drive her wheelchair the few blocks home, where her real nightmare began.

"My arm was throbbing and I figured I'd better get to a hospital," Ward said. "The trouble was, I fell down at 6 p.m. and paratransit only takes reservations until 4 p.m. I called and explained my emergency. They said no."

So Ward, who was in considerable pain, drove her wheelchair to the bus stop, took the 77 bus to Cottman and Central avenues, drove her chair alongside Burholme Park to Jeanes Hospital - "I had to drive in the road because tree roots had broken up the sidewalk" - and was told she should go to the Temple Trauma Center to determine whether the fall had injured her head.

She rode in an ambulance. Her wheelchair rode in another one. Weeks later, Ward got two bills - $1,200 for her transport and $210 for her wheelchair. "I am still haggling with the insurance company," she said.

The first question most people would ask is: After she fell down, why didn't Ward just take a taxi to the hospital?

The answer is: There are 1,599 taxicabs on the streets of Philadelphia - and not one of them is wheelchair-accessible.

Because of unrelated issues attached to the bill, Gov. Rendell vetoed legislation in 2006 that would have brought wheelchair-accessible taxis here .

Recently, Ward testified at state House Urban Affairs Committee hearings on a new bill by state Rep. Mark Cohen that would grant at least 50 taxi medallions solely for wheelchair-accessible cabs, which are vans with retractable ramps that allow disabled riders to drive right in.

Vince Fenerty, executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which regulates the city's taxis, testified that when he was temporarily paralyzed for almost a year in 1974, he had a hard time getting to his frequent medical appointments because there were no accessible taxis.

He said that an able-bodied person "does not know how difficult it is to get into a cab when one's legs do not work," adding that the absence of any accessible cabs here "discriminates against those with handicaps."

Like most of the speakers at the hearing, Fenerty strongly favors the accessible-taxi legislation, but like its ill-fated 2006 predecessor, the new bill contains an unrelated issue - workers' compensation for taxi drivers - that will make its passage difficult.

Most Philadelphia cab drivers lease their vehicles from taxi-medallion owners and are responsible for buying their own insurance. The new bill would require owners to provide workers'-comp insurance for their drivers.

Owner opposition to this could sink the wheelchair-accessible taxi bill.

Meanwhile, Ward, who has depended on a wheelchair since 1982, and her fellow disabled Philadelphians remain at the mercy of a wheelchair-accessible SEPTA bus system that is more of a crapshoot than it should be, and a paratransit system that requires reservations and doesn't handle emergencies after 4 p.m.

Cynthia Lister, who has spent 16 years at SEPTA enforcing the federal mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act, said that the transit agency supports the need for wheelchair-accessible taxis "because no paratransit service can provide the same kind of immediate, same-day service that everybody needs once in a while."

"Individuals with disabilities sometimes need to do things on the spur of the moment just like everyone else does," Lister said. "You need to go to the grocery store because you're out of milk. You need to pick up a prescription.

"What about just wanting to go somewhere with friends?"

The bad news is that some bus drivers and able-bodied passengers have attitude problems that can turn federally mandated wheelchair-accessibility into a closed door.

Damon Martin (pictured), 41, who has lived with cerebral palsy since birth and who walked with crutches until he got his motorized wheelchair three years ago, said, "I'm glad we have access to public transportation, but the rudeness that a disabled person has to cope with on a daily basis while getting on the bus is unconscionable - not only from passengers but from drivers as well."

That rudeness, he added, can translate into denied access, depending on the riders' and the driver's mood.

There are only two wheelchair-accessible seats/spaces on every bus, and if able-bodied people are sitting in them, the driver can ask them, but not order them, to move to another seat.

"Since I've been in my power chair," Martin said, "I have been passed up by several buses because the driver will yell out to me, 'There's another bus coming.' He won't let me on, even though the front seats are supposed to be yielded to those who have disabilities."

Zach Lewis, 27, of Southwest Philadelphia, who has been paraplegic since an automobile accident 10 years ago, rides SEPTA's G and 44 buses to work in Center City, and to his doctor's office.

"I could be the first one at the bus stop," Lewis said, "but the driver will let on all the able-bodied people who came to the bus stop later than me, then tell me that the bus is too crowded or the wheelchair lift's not working. So I have to wait for the next bus.

"The main issue is trying to get SEPTA to change the culture of the drivers, who have a lot of authority to control the situation."

Hope Blake (pictured), 26, who travels from Northeast Philadelphia to her job in Center City via the 73 bus and the Market-Frankford El, agreed. "The driver will say the bus is too full when I can clearly see that it's not," she said.

"If the driver has a bad attitude, so do the passengers. If the driver doesn't ask the passengers sitting in those two front seats to please move, they won't."

"We monitor complaints closely and send operators for retraining in classes taught by people with disabilities, but you still will get someone who says something so hateful or so stupid."

Even with the best of attitudes, Lister said, "the operator can ask or suggest that people move but can't force them to move. The underlying supposition is that there are also hidden disabilities. Just because someone doesn't look disabled doesn't mean they don't have a disability of some kind.

"Our operators are not the disability police," Lister said. "It would be discriminatory for them to make on-the-spot judgments about who is more worthy."

Martin doesn't buy that.

"Sometimes, I get passed up on the bus when the weather's really bad because the driver doesn't want to stop," he said. "I'm stuck waiting in the rain for another bus. If Philadelphia had accessible taxis, it would make a world of difference for me."

He said it would also reduce the verbal abuse from passengers. "I ride the bus every day and at least two or three times a week, I hear, 'Why can't you get another bus? You're making me late for work.'

"I'm, like, 'You're on the bus, going to where you have to go. I'm on the bus going to where I have to go. What's the problem?' "

Like most people, Martin has a social life. Unlike most people, he has to make paratransit reservations to get a ride home. If he forgets, he's out of luck.

"I try to live my life just like everybody else," Martin said. "I go to work, go to parties, go out with my friends. I could be leaving a party late, and I can't catch paratransit on the spur of the moment. It would be great if I could catch a wheelchair-accessible cab. But in Philadelphia, I can't."

Informed of Blake's, Lewis' and Martin's complaints, SEPTA's Lister said, "I know that even one or two toads really spoil things for all the good people out there. With thousands of drivers, you always have a few you wish you could put a muzzle on. The good news in Philadelphia is that since 2003, SEPTA's 1,415-bus fleet has been 100 percent wheelchair-accessible and has seen its disabled ridership grow from 13,000 to more than 70,000 annually.

Ward could have taken a wheelchair-accessible taxi in every other major American city - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York, Washington, D.C. - but not in Philadelphia.