EQUAL RIGHTS CENTER AND UBER REACH AGREEMENT ON AVAILABILITY AND SAFETY OF WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE VEHICLES IN D.C.

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:

1. 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;
2. 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;
3. 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
4. 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
[email protected], (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.

SOURCE Equal Rights Center