Monday was supposed to be the day Salt Lake City's three taxi companies would be forced to provide accessible cabs for people in motorized wheelchairs.

But the implementation of the new mandate was delayed by an unlikely source.

Lee Anne Walker, who has been disabled her entire life and now gets around in a motorized wheelchair, has asked a 3rd District judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Salt Lake City, preventing it from enforcing an ordinance that forces cab companies to become accessible.

Walker owns Handi Van, a small business that possesses four of 17 city licenses awarded to companies that provide accessible transportation for people with cumbersome modes of travel like motorized wheelchairs.

Handi Van, along with two other companies, already provides taxi-like service for the disabled, Walker said. She maintains the city can't increase the number of taxis that provide disabled service without going through proper regulatory channels, including a hearing before a city-appointed judge.

Only that judge can increase the number of cabs licensed to provide disabled service, Walker said.

"Before they can authorize additional providers for this kind of service, there needs to be formal notice to the existing providers and hearings, and existing providers need to have the right to object," she said.

She said many disabled people need specialized service only her company and ones like it can provide. The taxi companies could take a bite out of her fares and force her out of business, creating more hardship for the severely disabled who need special service, she said.

City attorneys and advocates from the Disabled Rights Action Committee disagree. They say services like Handi Van are too expensive, charging $45 to pick someone up and $3 a mile afterward. That's significantly more expensive than a cab ride, which has about a $2 flag drop and a $2 per-mile charge.

"When you're on a fixed income, there's just no way you can afford those kinds of fees," said Jerry Costley, the committee's executive director.

The city's new ordinance, passed by the City Council 60 days ago, mandates that cab companies maintain at least one accessible vehicle in their fleet and offer service to the disabled at the same price as other customers. The city notes that under the Americans With Disabilities Act, cab companies should provide disabled service on all "new" cars and vans. Cab companies get around that law by buying used cars.

"Really, this is just the city's way of requiring them to comply with the ADA and meet the unmet needs of the disabled community," assistant city attorney J. Wesley Robinson said.

Walker said cab companies should have to contract with her group or another licensed disabled transportation provider. She said some subsidy will be needed to make it possible to provide taxi service to the disabled at the same rates as to other customers.

Walker wants to establish an entity called Transportation Angels, which people could support with donations to help subsidize some of the costs related to providing taxi service to the disabled.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com