Winnipeg is looking for solutions to make its taxis more accessible.
On Monday night at a public meeting to discuss the new vehicle for hire bylaws, a group of people voiced their concerns about a lack of accessible vehicles. They said that new accessible taxis aren’t being added quickly enough to the fleet,
Right now there are 518 taxis on Winnipeg’s road and 67 of them are accessible, according to the Winnipeg Parking Authority.
The parking authority said there are two major roadblocks to creating accessible vehicles: time and cost.
In Manitoba there are only two companies that make vehicles accessible and it takes eight to 12 weeks for the conversion.
Plus the cost to convert a minivan into an accessible vehicle is around $60,000.
One idea discussed is a seven-cent-per-trip surcharge for companies with less than 10 per cent of its fleet being fully accessible.
“Is that the magic bullet that fixes it all? No,” said Colin Stewart, a policy analyst for the Winnipeg Parking Authority.
“But that’s, right now, the only thing that other cities have tried. And you know we want to – the simple thing is we want to get more accessible vehicles on the road. But there are some limitations on how fast they can be built.”
Stewart said an idea discussed at city hall is adding a stipulation that new taxi licensees must have an accessible vehicle.
The next round of taxi licenses will be given out at the end of 2018.
