New Orleans only has 1 wheelchair-accessible taxi

The big picture: New Orleans is preparing to host the 2025 Super Bowl, but first, it'll host the National Veterans Wheelchair Games this summer.

• When Portland held the competition last year, about 400 athletes showed up, according to OregonLive.

Zoom in: "This is a problem," says Angela Ledoux, the operations manager for the New Orleans Taxi Group, a collective of three cab companies.

• Ledoux occasionally gets requests for accessible taxis, but she rarely has anywhere to direct the inquiry.
• "The demand is definitely there," says Mark Raymond Jr., RTA board chairman and Split Second Foundation founder. "But like most mid-sized cities, we haven't picked up on the trends of some of our larger-city neighbors and pushed it. But as a tourist-driven city, we're leaving money on the table."

The intrigue: Jesse Bascle writes NOLA Rolla, a wheelchair-accessible travel blog for New Orleans, and he points visitors to the one permitted driver.

• But speaking with Axios New Orleans, Bascle, Raymond Jr. and Ledoux acknowledged it could be pretty hard to get in touch with that driver, and they weren't even sure if he was still in service.
• I tried calling and texting multiple times over two weeks, but never got a return call. The number also didn't have a voicemail service set up.

What he's saying: "For people coming to town, it's really hard," Bascle says.

• "It's definitely frustrating, and it should be easy. I've traveled many places, and public transportation should be easy to find or book."

Flashback: New Orleans has had challenges with wheelchair accessibility among its cab drivers before.

• A Times-Picayune article from 2011 indicates the city struggled with having "virtually no cabs in New Orleans capable of handling non-collapsible wheelchairs."
• Back then, City Council passed a new ordinance that aimed to make it easier for taxicabs to become more accessible, but that didn't happen.

Yes, but: There are some non-taxi options for wheelchair-accessible travel in New Orleans, but they do require advance notice.

• One is the RTA's paratransit service, but rides have to be scheduled 24 hours in advance, and pick-up/drop-off times are within a 30-minute window.
• Willie Edwards, who operates Dave Transportation, has a wheelchair accessible van, and though she typically pre-schedules her rides, she'd take additional customers on the fly if her time allows.

• As a wheelchair user, Bascle also says the streetcars are pretty easy to use, too.

Reality check: Uber and Lyft do have wheelchair-accessible service, but not in New Orleans.

• City officials are working to change that, says New Orleans & Company's VP of external affairs Kevin Ferguson.
• "I'd be lying if there wasn't some frustration with a lot of folks in our organization ... that we haven't gotten a little further along" in bringing accessible ride share service to the city, he says.

State of play: New Orleans & Co. has worked with the VA and other partners to ensure the Wheelchair Games events have the transportation they need, Ferguson says.

• "But we've got to get something more accessible for the average person," he says.
• The organization is also looking to partner with accessible travel booking platform Wheel the World.

Zoom out: New Orleans streets are also getting more wheelchair-accessible as the Department of Public Works brings sidewalks into ADA compliance after a 2021 lawsuit.

• In 2018, only 26% of the city's sidewalk curbs were ADA compliant, according to city data.
• Today, 56% of city curbs are compliant.