The free ride for disabled New Yorkers ended Tuesday as the MTA began collecting Access-A-Ride fares for the first time since March, when the pandemic prompted officials to make the rides free so drivers and riders could avoid exchanging cash.
New York City paratransit riders pay drivers $2.75 in cash for their trips, most of which are scheduled a day ahead.
Transit officials ordered drivers to stop collecting fares around the same time cash transactions were also banned on commuter railroads and at subway token booths amid fears that COVID-19 could spread through coins and dollar bills.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said the agency lost around $10 million from the free rides between April and December. But Joe Rappaport, executive director of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, said that’s a peanuts compared to the agency’s $17 billion annual operating budget.
“Given that there are strains of the virus that apparently spread more easily, you really want to reduce contact in any way you can to prevent the spread of COVID,” said Rappaport. “Some people who ride paratransit are particularly high risk.”
Cash transactions returned to the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North over the summer — but are still banned at subway token booths.
The return of Access-A-Ride fares — which came a day after MTA officials announced a planned fare hike would be delayed until the summer — was ill-received by disability advocates and paratransit riders, who must navigate a city where fewer than a third of the subway stations are wheelchair accessible.
Edward Fletcher, 44, uses Access-A-Ride to commute between his home in Sheepshead Bay to his job at National Grid in downtown Brooklyn five days a week.
“Most of us are struggling and every little bit helps,” said Fletcher, who uses a wheelchair.
Almost all of Fletcher’s rides these days are in wheelchair-accessible taxis as the MTA stopped shared rides for paratransit riders during the pandemic, which rendered the agency’s fleet of Access-A-Ride vans all but useless.
That means many paratransit users in wheelchairs have still had some contact with drivers who strap them in and out of the cars. Fletcher said the free rides have saved him more than $100 a month, and said the MTA should roll out a tap-and-pay system like OMNY if officials want to bring back the fares.
“There are a lot of contactless payment methods that can be used, but the system prefers cash,” said Fletcher. “That’s just one of those extra things that lends itself to exposure to COVID.”
MTA spokeswoman Meredith Daniels said OMNY will be available for some Access-A-Ride users later this year, and pointed to other measures the agency has taken to keep paratransit safe during the pandemic.
“With mandatory mask requirements, strict passenger limits per vehicle, dedicated cleaning and disinfecting, and the installation of plexiglass barriers underway we can ensure a safe ride that includes fare resumption as the MTA continues to implement innovative ways to protect the riding public,” Daniels said.
