WASHINGTON, July 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Equal Rights Center
(ERC) and Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) announced that they have
agreed on a plan through which Uber will undertake certain actions
in an effort to facilitate enhanced availability and safety of
rides for users of the Uber Rideshare marketplace using wheelchair
accessible vehicles (WAVs) in Washington,
DC. The agreement represents a mutual attempt to resolve
litigation over the availability and response times of WAV rides
requested using the Uber Rideshare marketplace in the District of Columbia. As part of this effort,
for the next 18 months:
- Uber will provide a monetary incentive per completed trip to
drivers who provide a completed trip that is initiated or completed
in Uber's D.C. market, in a rented or personally owned WAV on
Uber's WAV platform;
- Uber will provide a one-time monetary incentive to each driver
in the District of Columbia who
completes a first trip initiated or completed in Uber's D.C. market
on the WAV platform;
- For prospective drivers in the District of Columbia who want to onboard
rented or personally owned WAVs, Uber will direct the prospective
drivers to resources for completing WAV passenger securement
training (training on ensuring the safety of passengers in
wheelchairs and the proper securing of wheelchairs in the vehicle);
and
- Uber will require drivers in the District of Columbia to provide proof of
completion of WAV passenger securement training in order to
complete onboarding as a WAV driver and accept WAV requests.
The agreement and steps described above may result in the
dismissal of the lawsuit. More information about the litigation is
available here.
ERC Executive Director Kate Scott
comments "Being able to reliably and safely travel from one place
to another is something that many of us are able to take for
granted, but we hear regularly from members that transportation
options for wheelchair users in the District remain very limited.
As such, we are hopeful that the effort we're announcing today with
Uber will help better meet some of our community's transportation
needs."
The ERC is represented in the lawsuit by the Washington Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Relman Colfax
PLLC.
CONTACT:
Kate Scott, Executive Director
Equal Rights Center
kscott@equalrightscenter.org, (202) 370-3220
ABOUT THE EQUAL RIGHTS CENTER: The ERC is a civil rights
organization that identifies and seeks to eliminate unlawful and
unfair discrimination in housing, employment and public
accommodations in its home community of Greater Washington D.C. and nationwide. The
ERC's core strategy for identifying unlawful and unfair
discrimination is civil rights testing. When the ERC identifies
discrimination, it seeks to eliminate it through the use of testing
data to educate the public and business community, support policy
advocacy, conduct compliance testing and training, and, if
necessary, take enforcement action. For more information, please
visit www.equalrightscenter.org.
ABOUT THE WASHINGTON
LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND URBAN AFFAIRS: The
Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
partners with community members and organizations on scores of
cases to combat discrimination in housing, employment, education,
immigration, criminal justice reform, public accommodations, based
on race, gender, disability, family size, history of criminal
conviction, and more. The Washington Lawyers' Committee has secured
a relentless stream of civil rights victories over the past five
decades in an effort to achieve justice for all. For more
information, please visit www.washlaw.org.
ABOUT RELMAN COLFAX PLLC: Relman Colfax PLLC is one of
the largest plaintiff-side fair housing law firms in the country.
Based in Washington, D.C., the
Relman firm is responsible for significant legal decisions in civil
rights cases, including those in Independent Living Center of
Southern California v. City of Los Angeles (accessibility of
municipal affordable housing program); National Fair Housing
Alliance v. Spanos (ensuring accessibility in housing design and
construction); United States ex
rel. Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County (housing
desegregation); Kennedy v. City of Zanesville (access to public
services); and Baltimore v. Wells Fargo and Memphis v. Wells Fargo (discriminatory lending). More
information about the firm's cases is available at
www.relmanlaw.com.
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SOURCE Equal Rights Center