A 574: Requires accessible buses to be available within a service area measuring three miles from any bus line of the authority or its subsidiaries.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 574 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STECK, EPSTEIN, KELLES, McMAHON, STIRPE, DiPIE- TRO, GALLAGHER, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, RIVERA, CUNNINGHAM, SANTABARBARA, ALVAREZ, MAMDANI, DeSTEFANO, SEAWRIGHT, SHRESTHA, LUNSFORD, ROSENTHAL, LEVENBERG, BURKE, DURSO, BURDICK, GALLAHAN, LEMONDES, PIROZZOLO, HEVE- SI, DAVILA, REYES, BENDETT, MEEKS -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. GIGLIO -- 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: 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- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02142-01-5 
 A. 574 2 1 operated buses that provide local, fixed-route service. To implement 2 this requirement on and after the effective date of this section, all 3 buses purchased, leased or otherwise brought into service on the bus 4 lines of each transportation provider shall be lift-equipped except any 5 bus which a provider has under contract of purchase on July first, nine- 6 teen hundred ninety for delivery after that date. Such lift-equipped 7 buses shall be properly operated and maintained to facilitate their use 8 by transit-disabled persons. 9 b. The provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision shall not apply 10 to buses that are purchased, leased or otherwise brought into service 11 that have a useful life of six years or less. 12 c. Accessible buses shall be available within a service area measuring 13 three miles from any bus line of the authority and its subsidiaries. 14 § 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 15 have become a law.