NYC TLC Disses People with Disabilities (yet again)

Yesterday the winner of New York City's  Taxi of Tomorrow competition was announced, a proposal vetting process that began in 2007 to select the new vehicle design to be the only NYC yellow cab for the next ten years. Years of review and surveys and deliberation came to fruition when Bloomberg announced that Nissan won the bid.Why Nissan?In a survey by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission*, the cab that topped public opinion charts was the Karsan V1 with 39% loving it and 27% liking it. That's a whopping 66% positive response, with  only 19% combined negative response (9% Not for me, 10% No way!). The Nissan has only 43% combined positive response (12% love, 31% like) and a combined negative response of 26%.So, why Nissan?While Karsan is a Turkish auto company, the company proposed to bring production to Brooklyn, which would provide jobs to New Yorkers and to have cabs move quickly from the factory floor to dispatch.And most notably, each Karsan V1 has a  ramp that could be deployed on both the right and left sides of the vehicle, making it wheelchair accessible. This would make NY more accessible for historically under-served people with mobility restrictions and people in wheelchairs and be of benefit to anyone traveling with heavy items and small children in strollers. It would also eliminate the need for the malfunctioning "accessible" taxi service, which costs the Taxi and Limousine Commission approximately $172 per ride, according to a Gothamist article.According to Karsan's website:

Karsan has proposed a roomy, state-of-the-art vehicle that would revolutionize the taxi passenger experience in New York City and would enable it to be one of the world's first major metropolitan areas with a fleet thatis 100% compliant with the historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Currently, fewer than 300 of New York City’s 13,000 yellow cabs are wheelchair accessible, putting this basic mode of city transportation out of reach for thousands of New Yorkers and visitors. By adopting the Karsan design, New York City can claim the title of the World Capital of Accessibility.

So, will someone please tell me WHY NISSAN?According to the New York Times:

The Nissan was also considered by some as a fairly prosaic design, but city officials said they were looking for a manufacturer that could confidently promise reliable service and support over the life of the contract.The Karsan model was rejected after officials decided they could not risk awarding the contract to a company with little experience in the American market.

Why open the competition up to all different designers if experience in the U.S. market was enough to get you disqualified? Or why not make accessibility a requirement for others? There are many ways to support a car company in their work in the U.S., especially when Bloomberg and the entire City of New York are your pals. I have little to worry about a car company with a work order to produce every cab for the largest fleet in the country. Nope, chalk this one up to another moment of U.S. unspiration; convention and safe bets win again.And, with a contract that GUARANTEES that this Nissan cab will be the only one on the streets for the next 10 years, people with disabilities have at least another decade before getting to access all New York has to offer.* Notice that the question that mentions ramps only receives 11% of respondents who say having ramps in the cab is Very Important. And yet, the question says nothing about making a cab wheelchair accessible. In fact the question is stated "Ramps to roll items in an out of cabs." ITEMS. Not people. I can safely bet that ask people if it was important that PEOPLE be able to wheel in and out of cabs that number would have been considerably higher.