Bill requiring ride-sharing companies to offer accessible vehicles needs disabled community's feedback

The California Senate Bill SB 1376 snuck up and caught us by surprise a little bit and thankfully, it’s a good kind of surprise. The bill, which passed the Legislature on Sept. 30th, established the TNC Access for All Act, making a statewide commitment to move toward full accessibility of TNCs (most commonly known by the trade names Uber and Lyft). As part of this effort, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will hold a live public workshop on Wed., Dec. 5th to solicits input on how and where to engage stakeholders across four more workshops statewide on the implementation of the Act.

At its core, this bill creates a time-limited interim model to test and improve TNC accessibility through fostering local models and partnerships that will establish on-demand transportation programs to improve access to transportation options for individuals with disabilities. It funds that program through a five-cent fee per ride on those TNCs who are not ensuring accessibility to wheelchair users.

This workshop will also discuss recommendations regarding the establishment of geographic areas, criteria for Access Fund expenditures, and educational outreach objectives for programs for on-demand services and partnerships.

The workshop runs from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and it will be in the format of a live webinar. Now, here’s the only tricky thing that you need to be aware of in order to participate in this workshop. On Dec. 5th, you would need to go to this page (no sooner than that date) in order to get the information about how to participate in the live webinar.