{"id":142701,"date":"2026-02-23T14:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142701\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:30:07","slug":"op-ed-new-york-citys-paratransit-system-is-essential-to-helping-new-yorkers-get-where-they-need-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142701\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed | New York City\u2019s Paratransit system is essential to helping New Yorkers get where they need to go"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"MTA\t\t\t<\/p>\n

MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow riding a bus in Queens.<\/p>\n

Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA<\/p>\n

Public transit makes New York City thrive, but the reality is not everyone is able to get around using the existing network of subways,\u00a0buses\u00a0and railroads. For 200,000 New Yorkers, New York City\u2019s Paratransit system is that critical safety net allowing them to\u00a0participate\u00a0in this great City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0why\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0thrilled that 2025 was Paratransit\u2019s biggest year ever, with more than 11 million trips delivered.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a011 million times New Yorkers got where they needed to go when no other service could do the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0said\u00a0in this column<\/a>\u00a0before,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0changed the way we\u00a0operate\u00a0to achieve the\u00a0high level\u00a0of reliability that riders demand and deserve.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0invested in new Paratransit vehicles, in technology tools that empower customers, and in growing the network of broker vendors and drivers. The pay off? 80% customer satisfaction and a 20% increase in trips delivered year-over-year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve\u00a0made it easier for New Yorkers to apply for paratransit and to book and track their trips with digital tools. Half of all applicants now start the process online\u00a0and more than 10,000 trips are booked each day with our MY AAR app. With\u00a0new technology\u00a0and better processes,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0speeding up service at our call center and booking trips more efficiently.\u00a0And when riders took all those trips last\u00a0year,\u00a097% of them were\u00a0picked up on\u00a0time.\u00a0As a result, customers got more time back in their day and we were able to\u00a0actually lower\u00a0our cost per trip in 2025 compared to the year before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York City Transit is proud to provide this service, but we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0do it alone.\u00a0As our city and transit system continue down the road to universal accessibility, Paratransit helps fill critical gaps.\u00a0With demand for high-quality paratransit service booming, we need the\u00a0City\u00a0to continue its smart investment in the New Yorkers who depend on\u00a0this service.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Operating\u00a0worldclass transit service \u2013 including paratransit \u2013\u00a0relies in part\u00a0on\u00a0the decisions of City leaders and the value I know\u00a0they already place in our transit system.\u00a0We look forward to working together with our new partners in City Hall to build on the successes of 2025 in the years to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Demetrius Crichlow is President of New York City Transit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow riding a bus in Queens. Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8793,141,9,24,55,54,56,2584,299,59934,142],"class_list":["post-142701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-demetrius-crichlow","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion","tag-paratransit","tag-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}