Subpart E—Acquisition of Accessible Vehicles by Private Entities
§ 37.101 Purchase or lease of vehicles by private entities not primarily engaged in the business of transporting people.
[56 FR 45621, Sept. 6, 1991, as amended at 61 FR 25416, May 21, 1996]
(a) Application. This section applies to all purchases or leases of vehicles by private entities which are not primarily engaged in the business of transporting people, in which a solicitation for the vehicle is made after August 25, 1990.
(b) Fixed Route System. Vehicle Capacity Over 16. If the entity operates a fixed route system and purchases or leases a vehicle with a seating capacity of over 16 passengers (including the driver) for use on the system, it shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs.
(c) Fixed Route System. Vehicle Capacity of 16 or Fewer. If the entity operates a fixed route system and purchases or leases a vehicle with a seating capacity of 16 or fewer passengers (including the driver) for use on the system, it shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, unless the system, when viewed in its entirety, meets the standard for equivalent service of §37.105 of this part.
(d) Demand Responsive System, Vehicle Capacity Over 16. If the entity operates a demand responsive system, and purchases or leases a vehicle with a seating capacity of over 16 passengers (including the driver) for use on the system, it shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, unless the system, when viewed in its entirety, meets the standard for equivalent service of §37.105 of this part.
(e) Demand Responsive System, Vehicle Capacity of 16 or Fewer. Entities providing demand responsive transportation covered under this section are not specifically required to ensure that new vehicles with seating capacity of 16 or fewer are accessible to individuals with wheelchairs. These entities are required to ensure that their systems, when viewed in their entirety, meet the equivalent service requirements of §§37.171 and 37.105, regardless of whether or not the entities purchase a new vehicle.
§ 37.103 Purchase or lease of new non-rail vehicles by private entities primarily engaged in the business of transporting people.
[56 FR 45621, Sept. 6, 1991, as amended at 76 FR 57936, Sept. 19, 2011]
(a) Application. This section applies to all acquisitions of new vehicles by private entities which are primarily engaged in the business of transporting people and whose operations affect commerce, in which a solicitation for the vehicle is made (except as provided in paragraph (d) of this section) after August 25, 1990.
(b) Fixed route systems. If the entity operates a fixed route system, and purchases or leases a new vehicle other than an automobile, a van with a seating capacity of less than eight persons (including the driver), it shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs.
(c) Demand responsive systems. If the entity operates a demand responsive system, and purchases or leases a new vehicle other than an automobile, a van with a seating capacity of less than eight persons (including the driver), it shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, unless the system, when viewed in its entirety, meets the standard for equivalent service of §37.105 of this part.
(d) Vans with a capacity of fewer than 8 persons. If the entity operates either a fixed route or demand responsive system, and purchases or leases a new van with a seating capacity of fewer than eight persons including the driver (the solicitation for the vehicle being made after February 25, 1992), the entity shall ensure that the vehicle is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, unless the system, when viewed in its entirety, meets the standard for equivalent service of §37.105 of this part.
§ 37.105 Equivalent service standard.
For purposes of §§37.101 and 37.103 of this part, a fixed route system or demand responsive system, when viewed in its entirety, shall be deemed to provide equivalent service if the service available to individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, is provided in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of the individual and is equivalent to the service provided other individuals with respect to the following service characteristics:
(a)
(1) Schedules/headways (if the system is fixed route);
(2) Response time (if the system is demand responsive);
(b) Fares;
(c) Geographic area of service;
(d) Hours and days of service;
(e) Availability of information;
(f) Reservations capability (if the system is demand responsive);
(g) Any constraints on capacity or service availability;
(h) Restrictions priorities based on trip purpose (if the system is demand responsive).
(a) A private entity which is primarily engaged in the business of transporting people and whose operations affect commerce, which makes a solicitation after February 25, 1992, to purchase or lease a new rail passenger car to be used in providing specified public transportation, shall ensure that the car is readily accessible to, and usable by, individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs. The accessibility standards in part 38 of this title which apply depend upon the type of service in which the car will be used.
(b) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, a private entity which is primarily engaged in transporting people and whose operations affect commerce, which remanufactures a rail passenger car to be used in providing specified public transportation to extend its useful life for ten years or more, or purchases or leases such a remanufactured rail car, shall ensure that the rail car, to the maximum extent feasible, is made readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs. For purposes of this paragraph, it shall be considered feasible to remanufacture a rail passenger car to be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, unless an engineering analysis demonstrates that doing so would have a significant adverse effect on the structural integrity of the car.
(c) Compliance with paragraph (b) of this section is not required to the extent that it would significantly alter the historic or antiquated character of a historic or antiquated rail passenger car, or a rail station served exclusively by such cars, or would result in the violation of any rule, regulation, standard or order issued by the Secretary under the Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970. For purposes of this section, a historic or antiquated rail passenger car means a rail passenger car—
(1) Which is not less than 30 years old at the time of its use for transporting individuals;
(2) The manufacturer of which is no longer in the business of manufacturing rail passenger cars; and
(3) Which—
(i) Has a consequential association with events or persons significant to the past; or
(ii) Embodies, or is being restored to embody, the distinctive characteristics of a type of rail passenger car used in the past, or to represent a time period which has passed.
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