The Ride (MBTA)

The Ride (sometimes styled as The RIDE) is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's ADA paratransit program for people with physical, mental or cognitive disabilities that make it difficult or impossible to ride the MBTA's fixed-route bus, subway, and trolley system. The program uses wheelchair accessible vans for door-to-door service; drivers are required to assist passengers to and from the vehicle. The Ride satisfies requirements under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act for transit systems to provide services for those who cannot ride the fixed-route system.[1] The service began in April 1977 with two vehicles.[2]

The Ride van in Lexington Center
The Ride vehicle in Lexington

Unlike the MBTA's fixed-route services, The RIDE trips must be scheduled in advance, typically by 5pm local time the day before. Same-day trip changes and those greater than 3/4 mile from fixed-route services and outside of the core service area are considered premium trips and incur a surcharge.[1] The Ride does not use the MBTA's CharlieCard; instead, passengers must set up an individual account with the MBTA.[1]

In 2016, the MBTA started a pilot program that allows passengers to use a TNC (transportation network company) such as Lyft or Uber a specified number of times per month. This is a curb to curb service rather than door to door service, and there is very limited availability of TNC vehicles with wheelchair lifts. However, there is no need to call and schedule the day before: the TNC trip is set up through a smartphone application. Under this program, for each trip the passenger pays the first $2 or so and the MBTA pays the TNC up to a certain amount. If the total fare is above that amount, the passenger is responsible for the rest of the fare.

The Ride has attracted criticism in recent years for its high operating cost per rider per trip (over $65 USD in 2016) and its inefficient service model. The vendors operating the RIDE are contracted to receive over $40 per trip made minus penalties for lateness. As of July 2019, passengers pay a fare of $3.35 for an ADA regular trip and $5.60 for a non-ADA premium trip. The rest of the cost, over 90%, is covered by the MBTA. [3][4] By policy or regulation, the fare for a trip on The RIDE is kept close to the fare for a trip on an MBTA bus.

Operations

The RIDE program is run by the MBTA, but actual service is contracted out to three separate companies and organizations in the Greater Boston area to run the service: GLSS (Greater Lynn Senior Services), NEXT (National Express Transit) and VTS (Veterans Transportation Services). Additionally, all call center services including reservations, scheduling and dispatch are handled by another vendor, currently Intelliride, a subsidiary of Transdev.

The MBTA uses American made vans and sedans for The RIDE and uses the MBTA branding on all its RIDE vehicles. The vendor (company) operating an individual RIDE vehicle is identifiable by a company specific color scheme with stripes running alongside the van. Preferred type vehicles are not honored.

All 3 companies can provide the service in the immediate Boston area, namely Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville. The separate company/vendor is assigned a geographic region where no other vendor is allowed to operate. In other words, when a passenger is picked up or dropped off in a community outside of the immediate Boston area, the company assigned exclusively to that community must be used to transport that passenger.

For example, someone going from Boston to Dorchester (which is still part of Boston) might use any company, but someone traveling from Boston to Saugus would have to use GLSS (Greater Lynn Senior Services) for this trip. Someone going from Lynn to Norwood, however, will have to use GLSS then transfer within Boston to a NEXT operated Ride vehicle because only GLSS services Lynn and only NEXT services Norwood.

Until early 2017, the passenger or designee called the Ride vendor (NEXT, VTS or GLSS) and arranged a trip directly with them. The passenger or designee would tell the vendor reservationist the desired time and location.

Transition to TRAC

In 2017, the MBTA started consolidating reservations, scheduling and dispatching for all three vendors into one centralized call center called TRAC, which stands for "The RIDE Access Center." The MBTA hired Global Contact Services (GCS) to run TRAC out of an office facility in Medford, Massachusetts. TRAC took over call center duties from NEXT in January then from GLSS in April of 2017. The VTS (Veterans) call center was next. However, VTS retained its call center through 2017, partly because of issues the MBTA had with the vendor GCS running the TRAC center. After a new vendor, Intelliride/Transdev, took over the TRAC center in the summer of 2018, VTS transitioned its call center functions into TRAC.

The following table shows information on the vendors who provide the paratransit operators:

North Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS) Blue
Northwest Veterans Transportation, LLC (VTS) Red
South National Express - The RIDE (NE/NEXT) Green

2020 Transition of RIDE Vendors

The MBTA in general awards RIDE contracts to vendors every five years, and the next five year contract period began in January of 2020. In September of 2019, the MBTA offered 50% of RIDE trips to NEXT, 30% to MV Transportation and 20% to VTS for the next contract period after evaluating price points and technical abilities of each vendor.[5] GLSS also bid for a contract but did not win an offer. Sometime later in the fall of 2019, MV Transportation decided not to accept and sign the contract, so in November 2019, the MBTA awarded 50% to VTS and 50% to NEXT.

As of January 2020, all three vendors (GLSS, VTS, NEXT) are still in operation, and GLSS paratransit operators have been notified of a preliminary layoff schedule. Late in 2019, NEXT and VTS started looking for satellite locations to accommodate the anticipated extra vehicles and personnel needed for the increased percentage of RIDE trips.

Criticism

The program has been criticized for its high cost to the MBTA, particularly since much of the MBTA was made accessible in the past three decades.[6] During discussions of potential major fare increases and service cuts in 2013, the program's high cost per rider was cited as waste.

As of November 2019, all MBTA Bus routes, Orange Line stations and Red Line stations are accessible as are all but one Blue Line station, all but one Mattapan Trolley stop, most Green Line stations, and most commuter rail stations.[7][8] Many Ride customers use a combination of regular MBTA bus, train and trolley as well as the RIDE paratransit service especially within the core communities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville. Despite this, the number of Ride users and the number of daily Ride trips continue to increase every year.

References
  1. "THE RIDE Paratransit Program". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  2. "MBTA Marks The RIDE's 25 Years of Service" (PDF). TRANSReport. Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization. May 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  3. Katz, Bob; et al. (December 2011). "RIDE Program Review – Final Report" (PDF). Financial Analysis and Control Technology Services LLC. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  4. Quinn, Colleen (21 February 2012). "Inspector General recommends money savers for costly MBTA Ride program". MetroWest Daily News. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  5. https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/2019-09-23-fmcb-M-ride-dedicated-service-provider-procurement.pdf
  6. Wells, Jonathan (21 February 2011). "I-Team: 'The Ride' Breaking MBTA's Budget". CBS Boston. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  7. https://www.mbta.com/stops/commuter-rail#commuter-rail-tab
  8. https://www.mbta.com/stops/subway#subway-tab
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