Bill Text: NY S04739 | 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) 2024-05-06 - RECOMMIT, ENACTING CLAUSE STRICKEN [S04739 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04739-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4739

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 14, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  KENNEDY,  BORRELLO,  CLEARE, GALLIVAN, GOUNARDES,
          HOYLMAN-SIGAL, MANNION, MAY, MYRIE, ORTT --  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

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05937-01-3
        S. 4739                             2

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