Members of disabled community say Uber is not providing equal service

Lyft’s arrival in the Sun City comes at a time when members of the disabled community are asking Uber to improve its services for disabled El Pasoans.

City council representatives passed the transportation for hire ordinance last year. It requires companies to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles upon request.

George Zavala, a disabled El Pasoan who has spoken before city council, is criticizing Uber for allegedly not providing timely service to the disabled community.

“We just don’t understand why they don’t want to comply. It is real simple. All they have to do is partner up with a third party,” Zavala said.

Uber’s website states: “We’re using technology to make transportation more accessible and reliable for riders with ambulatory disabilities.We are piloting several models in various cities across the country to determine which wheelchair accessible vehicle options best meet the needs of our riders and driver-partners. These pilots range from making our technology available to wheelchair accessible taxis to providing wheelchair accessible options through partnerships with commercial providers (e.g. in New York, Houston, Chicago, London, Portland).”

Uber has an uberWAV pilot program for wheelchair accessible vehicle options, but Zavala said the option is not available in El Paso.

City representative Emma Acosta has put an item on next week’s city council agenda to discuss the issue. She told ABC-7 Uber is referring disabled El Pasoan’s to Sun Metro’s Lift service, but many are confusing it with Lyft, a new ride-sharing service similar to Uber.

“We need to make the ordinance a little bit clearer and, perhaps, ask Uber and Lyft to provide us that third party company that they are going to contract to so that when you do get a call from someone who does need a wheelchair accessible vehicle, they can say, ‘well, you need to contact this company,'” Acosta said.

“Uber is cheap and economical. Uber is convenient and provides jobs,” Zavala said, “But that does not negate their obligation to comply with the ordinance.”

ABC-7 reached out to Uber for a comment, but no response was given.

Texas lawmakers have filed and presented two bills that would remove a city’s authority to regulate ride-sharing companies and instead give that power to the state.