A tweet published on August 24th of 2021 shows New York Lawyers for the Public interest and AAARRG! (Access-A-Ride Reform Group) protesting in front of the Metropolitain Transportation Authority (MTA) offices asking to end the shared paratransit rides, in the midst of the Delta wave.
For the 16 months since the beginning of the pandemic, the paratransit rides were offered on a solo basis but now, the MTA claims a driver shortage makes that impossible and seeks to resume “shared rides”. Activists claim that solos rides were safer for riders, but they also made for shorter, easier, and more direct trips than what the paratransit riders call the “five-borough tours” which lengthened the trips of shared rides. —Yan Grenier