Hitching a lift without getting caught

The hazards of hailing a taxi in a wheelchair

Photo by Lexi Anderson on Unsplash

I’ve been without a car for two weeks now. My windscreen was smashed during a “spate of attacks”, according to the guards, in town on Leap Day, just after I saw Leap Day in the cinema. They also told me that it probably wasn’t a targeted attack, which was both reassuring and chilling. The luck of the Irish was not with me that day.

I am very lucky that I live on a reliable 24-hour bus route, and I haven’t had to do a Big Shop for the last two weeks, but life without a car means that I have to embrace one of my biggest discomforts; hailing a taxi. Over the last five days, I have had to get four taxis for work events, which is probably more than my total amount of taxi rides for 2022 and 2023 combined.

Unlike Scotland, England, and (I think) Wales, taxis in Ireland aren’t required to be wheelchair accessible. All of the black cabs you see in London have a fold-out ramp in the floor, allowing wheelchairs to hail easily on the street. When most of the Underground network is not accessible for disabled people, the knowledge that their taxis (and buses) are adapted and fit for purpose is extremely reassuring.

Things are getting better in Dublin, with an increasing number of accessible taxis available on apps at no greater cost, but for some reasons, there’s a huge amount of active discrimination against disabled people from taxi drivers.