4 ms·

What did people in wheelchairs do before these rideshare apps were around?

by wmichelin 6y ago

hnthrowaway353 6y ago
Waste a lot of time waiting for paratransit to show up.
- fotta 6y ago
  Yup basically.
meroes 6y ago
Not sure the right word, but a lot of towns and cities have a heavily subsidized busing system for very local routes. Things like DATA Bus or Meals on Wheels. Also my grandparents in a city always used a cab service that only serves wheelchair and has trained drivers to load and unload.
vertbhrtn 6y ago
I guess they hired a personal driver or spent hours a day in the public transit system.
Ensorceled 6y ago
Endured. Worse, the financially better off using the paid services allowed the public services to become more responsive to the poorer members of this demographic. So now everybody will suffer.
tpl 6y ago
Wait hours for a van to maybe show up.
xrd 6y ago
There are plenty of cabs that are wheelchair accessible. My wife works in surgery centers and they often call a cab for someone that needs a ride home and is in a wheelchair. Edit: This was one of the main reasons against using Uber. Cabs were, I believe, legally required to provide this service, and Uber wasn't. That may have changed, but cabs were subject to that regulation, at least in Oregon, and Uber wasn't. Uber may have filled that gap, but I'm sure it was for financial benefit to them and not because it was the right thing to do.
- Ensorceled 6y ago
  This was the complaint from the cab companies here in Toronto; they were required to have a certain percentage of their fleet as accessibility vehicles where as the ride “share” companies were not. Unfortunately, the cab companies had accumulated years of bad will from tolerating bad and abusive drivers and then ran strikes in the city where drivers attacked people and deliberately blocked an ambulance. I don’t like any of the sides in this battle.
woodrowbarlow 6y ago
public transit agencies are obligated to provide this service, most municipalities contract it out. in recent years, it has been increasingly common for transit agencies to work directly with uber and lyft for paratransit services.
reincarnate0x14 6y ago
In most cases, they waited additional hours, per trip, for limited spots on paratransit or depended on friends and family. The ones affluent enough to afford it used private drivers. A few years ago I was in a freak accident and ended up in a wheel chair for about 3 months. It's really hard to put into words how much more effort and hassle it is to get around that way, even when most of the people around you are willing to help. And I was relatively lucky, still having full use of my arms and no other health issues. But a decent rule of thumb is to take however long you think some activity should require and multiply that by three, at minimum. A disabled friend of mine has often spent quite literally all day dealing with disabled transit issues to get across town for a single appointment someplace. We help him out when we can, but like most people he hates feeling beholden to the charity of friends.

What did people in wheelchairs do before these rideshare apps were around?

hnthrowaway353 6y ago

Waste a lot of time waiting for paratransit to show up.

fotta 6y ago
Yup basically.

meroes 6y ago

Not sure the right word, but a lot of towns and cities have a heavily subsidized busing system for very local routes. Things like DATA Bus or Meals on Wheels. Also my grandparents in a city always used a cab service that only serves wheelchair and has trained drivers to load and unload.

vertbhrtn 6y ago

I guess they hired a personal driver or spent hours a day in the public transit system.

Ensorceled 6y ago

Endured. Worse, the financially better off using the paid services allowed the public services to become more responsive to the poorer members of this demographic. So now everybody will suffer.

tpl 6y ago

Wait hours for a van to maybe show up.

xrd 6y ago

There are plenty of cabs that are wheelchair accessible. My wife works in surgery centers and they often call a cab for someone that needs a ride home and is in a wheelchair. Edit: This was one of the main reasons against using Uber. Cabs were, I believe, legally required to provide this service, and Uber wasn't. That may have changed, but cabs were subject to that regulation, at least in Oregon, and Uber wasn't. Uber may have filled that gap, but I'm sure it was for financial benefit to them and not because it was the right thing to do.

Ensorceled 6y ago
This was the complaint from the cab companies here in Toronto; they were required to have a certain percentage of their fleet as accessibility vehicles where as the ride “share” companies were not. Unfortunately, the cab companies had accumulated years of bad will from tolerating bad and abusive drivers and then ran strikes in the city where drivers attacked people and deliberately blocked an ambulance. I don’t like any of the sides in this battle.

woodrowbarlow 6y ago

public transit agencies are obligated to provide this service, most municipalities contract it out. in recent years, it has been increasingly common for transit agencies to work directly with uber and lyft for paratransit services.

reincarnate0x14 6y ago

In most cases, they waited additional hours, per trip, for limited spots on paratransit or depended on friends and family. The ones affluent enough to afford it used private drivers. A few years ago I was in a freak accident and ended up in a wheel chair for about 3 months. It's really hard to put into words how much more effort and hassle it is to get around that way, even when most of the people around you are willing to help. And I was relatively lucky, still having full use of my arms and no other health issues. But a decent rule of thumb is to take however long you think some activity should require and multiply that by three, at minimum. A disabled friend of mine has often spent quite literally all day dealing with disabled transit issues to get across town for a single appointment someplace. We help him out when we can, but like most people he hates feeling beholden to the charity of friends.