49 CFR Parts 37 and 38 -- Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities at Intercity, Commuter, and High Speed Passenger Railroad Station Platforms; Miscellaneous Amendments, Preamble

Used Demand-Response Vehicles

NPRM

The ADA and the Department's rule require that when a public transit provider acquires used vehicles for a fixed route system, the provider must make and document good faith efforts (GFE) to obtain an accessible used vehicle. This requirement does not apply, however, to vehicles acquired for demand-responsive systems for the general public. The NPRM asked whether the GFE requirement should be expanded to cover these systems.

Comments

Most of the comments on these issues were from the disability community, and they unanimously recommended that GFE be required. The rationale for doing so, they said, is the same as in the case of fixed route vehicles: simply acquiring inaccessible used vehicles perpetuates transportation that is not fully accessible to and usable by passengers with disabilities. The few transit industry comments that addressed this subject objected to performing GFE in these cases, saying that doing so was unnecessary and could inhibit demand-responsive systems for the general public from using sedans or taxi services as part of their operation.

It is likely that today there may be a significant number of used accessible vans and small buses available that demand responsive systems for the general public could use. We believe that it is a best practice for such systems to make good faith efforts to acquire accessible vehicles when seeking used vehicles. However, the statute imposes a good faith effort requirement for acquiring used vehicles only on fixed-route systems, not demand-responsive systems for the general public. Consequently, the Department will not include a regulatory text provision mandating good faith efforts for used vehicles operated in demand-responsive systems for the general public.