Int. No. 668

By Council Members Rodriguez, Richards, Mendez, Rosenthal and Garodnick

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to lower emission taxis and for hire vehicles.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1.  Subdivision b of section 19-532 of chapter 5 of title 19 of the administrative code of the city of New York, is amended to read as follows:

b.  Of the total number of taxicab licenses issued by the commission pursuant to subdivision a of this section, at least nine percent shall be issued subject to the requirement that the vehicles operated by or under agreement with the owners of such licenses [either] be powered by compressed natural gas or electricity or be a hybrid electric vehicle, or a vehicle model which has the same emissions as or fewer emissions than electric vehicles, and at least nine percent shall be issued subject to the requirement that the vehicles operated by or under agreement with the owners of such licenses be fully accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with standards established by the commission; provided however, of the licenses authorized to be sold pursuant to subdivision a of this section that are issued after June 1, 2006, two hundred fifty-four shall be issued subject to the requirements that the vehicles operated by or under agreement with the owners of such licenses [either] be powered by compressed natural gas or electricity or be a hybrid electric vehicle, or a vehicle model which has the same emissions as or fewer emissions than electric vehicles, and fifty four shall be issued subject to the requirement that the vehicles operated by or under agreement with the owners of such licenses be fully accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with standards established by the commission; and provided further that if the prices which the commission is able to obtain for issuance subject to either of the foregoing requirements does not exceed ninety percent of the average price otherwise obtained by the commission for the issuance of licenses pursuant to this section, the commission is authorized to issue such licenses without such requirement.

§2.  Section 19-533 of chapter 5 of title 19 the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

§19-533 Clean air taxis.  a. The commission shall approve one or more hybrid electric vehicle models for use as a taxicab within ninety days after the enactment of this law.  The approved vehicle model or models shall be eligible for immediate use by all current and future medallion owners.  For the purposes of this chapter, a hybrid electric vehicle shall be defined as a commercially available mass production vehicle originally equipped by the manufacturer with a combustion engine system together with an electric propulsion system that operates in an integrated manner.

b. Notwithstanding subdivision a of this section, an electric vehicle model, a compressed natural gas model or any other model with the same emissions as or fewer emissions than an electric vehicle may be used to satisfy the requirements of subdivision a.  For the purposes of this chapter, an electric vehicle shall be defined as a vehicle which is propelled by a motor or motors powered exclusively by electricity.

§ 3. This local law shall take effect immediately upon its enactment.

AV

LS 2048

9/4/2014