Palo Alto’s senior services agency Avenidas and ride-sharing company Lyft are partnering to provide rides to seniors on the Peninsula, the nonprofit agency announced last week.
San Francisco-based Lyft, which facilitates rides through a smartphone application, will provide older adults with discounted rides, with Avenidas acting as the dispatcher through the agency’s Door to Door Transportation program. The program provides 5,300 rides a year, according to Avenidas. Users will not need a smartphone to request a ride.
“Many of the older adults whom we serve either don’t feel comfortable using apps on their phones, or don’t even own a smartphone at all, and now, thanks to this unique partnership with Lyft, Avenidas will handle the ride scheduling for them,” Avenidas President and CEO Amy Andonian said in a statement. “An additional benefit of partnering with Lyft is that we are no longer fully dependent on having enough volunteer drivers, and so we can now fulfill all ride requests.”
The Door to Door program takes requests from individuals, referrals from social workers, calls from other senior centers and hospitals, as well as calls from adult children on behalf of their parents. The rides, according to Avenidas, are “critical to people who no longer drive, as they help prevent isolation by getting people to the places they want to go, and keeps them healthy by getting them to important medical appointments.”
Rides can be booked by calling 650-289-5411. Fees vary: $9 for short rides (0-3.9 miles); $13 for medium rides (4.0-7.9 miles); and $18 for long rides (8.0-12 miles). There is a fee of $7.50 for rides cancelled without 24-hour notice.
More information is posted at avenidas.org.
—Palo Alto Weekly staff
