Bill Text: NY S09703 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires accessible buses to be available within a service area measuring three miles from any bus line of the authority or its subsidiaries.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-22 - REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION [S09703 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S09703-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9703

                    IN SENATE

                                      May 22, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  COONEY,  ADDABBO, ASHBY, BORRELLO, BROUK, CLEARE,
          GALLIVAN, GOUNARDES, HINCHEY, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, MANNION,  MARTINEZ,  MAY,
          MYRIE,  ORTT,  PALUMBO, ROLISON, WEBER, WEIK -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on  Trans-
          portation

        AN  ACT to amend the transportation law, in relation to the service area
          for paratransit transportation

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 15-b of the transportation law, as
     2  amended  by  chapter  385  of  the  laws  of 1985, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    4. Accessible buses. The system shall include access by transportation
     5  disabled persons, including persons in wheelchairs,  to  not  less  than
     6  sixty-five  percent  of  buses  in  the  regularly operated fleet of the
     7  authority, which shall be properly operated and maintained to facilitate
     8  their use by transportation disabled persons. To  meet  this  sixty-five
     9  percent  requirement,  all buses purchased, leased, or otherwise brought
    10  newly into service on the bus lines of the  authority  and  its  subsid-
    11  iaries,  except  buses  leased  or otherwise put into service to relieve
    12  temporary, unplanned shortages of buses in service, shall be  accessible
    13  to transportation disabled persons until the sixty-five percent require-
    14  ment  is met.  Accessible buses shall be available within a service area
    15  measuring three miles from any bus line of the authority and its subsid-
    16  iaries.
    17    § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 15-c of the transportation law, as added
    18  by chapter 61 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
    19    4. Required level of fixed-route accessibility. a. Each transportation
    20  provider shall provide access to one hundred percent of  its  regularly-
    21  operated  buses  that  provide  local, fixed-route service. To implement
    22  this requirement on and after the effective date of  this  section,  all
    23  buses  purchased,  leased  or  otherwise brought into service on the bus
    24  lines of each transportation provider shall be lift-equipped except  any
    25  bus which a provider has under contract of purchase on July first, nine-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05937-01-3
        S. 9703                             2

     1  teen  hundred  ninety  for  delivery after that date. Such lift-equipped
     2  buses shall be properly operated and maintained to facilitate their  use
     3  by transit-disabled persons.
     4    b.  The  provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision shall not apply
     5  to buses that are purchased, leased or otherwise  brought  into  service
     6  that have a useful life of six years or less.
     7    c. Accessible buses shall be available within a service area measuring
     8  three miles from any bus line of the authority and its subsidiaries.
     9    §  3.  This  act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
    10  have become a law.