S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4165
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             February 10, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by M. of A. STECK, EPSTEIN, KELLES, BYRNES, McMAHON, WALLACE,
   THIELE, STIRPE, DiPIETRO, GALLAGHER, FAHY, GONZALEZ-ROJAS -- read once
   and referred to the Committee on Transportation
 
 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:
 
   Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 15-b of the transportation law, as
 amended  by  chapter  385  of  the  laws  of 1985, is amended to read as
 follows:
   4. Accessible buses. The system shall include access by transportation
 disabled persons, including persons in wheelchairs,  to  not  less  than
 sixty-five  percent  of  buses  in  the  regularly operated fleet of the
 authority, which shall be properly operated and maintained to facilitate
 their use by transportation disabled persons. To  meet  this  sixty-five
 percent  requirement,  all buses purchased, leased, or otherwise brought
 newly into service on the bus lines of the  authority  and  its  subsid-
 iaries,  except  buses  leased  or otherwise put into service to relieve
 temporary, unplanned shortages of buses in service, shall be  accessible
 to transportation disabled persons until the sixty-five percent require-
 ment  is met.  ACCESSIBLE BUSES SHALL BE AVAILABLE WITHIN A SERVICE AREA
 MEASURING THREE MILES FROM ANY BUS LINE OF THE AUTHORITY AND ITS SUBSID-
 IARIES.
   § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 15-c of the transportation law, as added
 by chapter 61 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
   4. Required level of fixed-route accessibility. a. Each transportation
 provider shall provide access to one hundred percent of  its  regularly-
 operated  buses  that  provide  local, fixed-route service. To implement
 this requirement on and after the effective date of  this  section,  all
 buses  purchased,  leased  or  otherwise brought into service on the bus
 lines of each transportation provider shall be lift-equipped except  any
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD05937-01-3
              

 A. 4165                             2
 
 bus which a provider has under contract of purchase on July first, nine-
 teen  hundred  ninety  for  delivery after that date. Such lift-equipped
 buses shall be properly operated and maintained to facilitate their  use
 by transit-disabled persons.
   b.  The  provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision shall not apply
 to buses that are purchased, leased or otherwise  brought  into  service
 that have a useful life of six years or less.
   C. ACCESSIBLE BUSES SHALL BE AVAILABLE WITHIN A SERVICE AREA MEASURING
 THREE MILES FROM ANY BUS LINE OF THE AUTHORITY AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES.
   §  3.  This  act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
 have become a law.