Getting a cab could get a lot smoother for the disabled in the Bronx.

New York State Assemblyman Victor Pichardo traveled to Webster Avenue in Norwood to propose a bill calling for the creation of a dispatch system for New York taxis specific to customers on wheelchairs. Pichardo labeled his legislation a “better solution” to fixing a taxi service hole.

Services for the disabled, including the ability to receive accessible car service, are mandated by law.

Pichardo noted there is no citywide central dispatch service for wheelchair accessible riders resulting in the disabled having to call a regular car service to get the resources they need. Manhattan is the only borough to receive this service, though the Taxi & Limousine Commission has been vetting companies that offer accessible dispatch services.

But Felix Madrano, owner of Prestige Car Service at the corner of Webster Avenue and East 204th Street, said that car services do not have the resources to give disabled people the appropriate transportation service since many for-hire taxi drivers own regular vehicles. The bases have no control over the fleet of cars they get.

Advocates for taxi drivers say this could decrease the swell of fines tacked on to car services that barely have wheelchair-accessible cabs available.

“TLC issued summonses close to $400,000, which did not produce one wheelchair accessible ride,” said Avik Kabessa, a member of the Livery Roundtable, an advocacy group for taxi drivers.

Opposing the bill was Edith Prentiss, chair of Taxis for All Campaign, which seeks to make every city 100 percent accessible for wheelchair users, said the bill “is clearly a sop to an industry that has never accepted its responsibility to transport wheelchair users, and is still trying to discriminate.”

The Bronx has the highest percentage of residents with disabilities in the city at 13.7 percent, according to a 2011 report by the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York. Of that population, totaling 535,840 people, 8.4 percent are persons with wheelchairs.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.