🔧 The fix is possible:
1️⃣ Fund fleet maintenance & real-time tracking
2️⃣ Simplify eligibility + make fares cash-free
3️⃣ Train and support drivers as frontline disability-justice professionals
4️⃣ Bring older adults into every decision room—nothing about us without us

These aren’t transit issues alone—they’re quality of life issues:
✔️ When rides work, people stay healthy, connected, and empowered
✖️ When they don’t, riders miss care, suffer physically, and feel invisible

Six key themes emerged:
🧭 Independence & social connection
🛠️ Staff professionalism & working equipment
🕒 Logistical burdens
🩺 Services that don’t match health needs
🚧 Unsafe environments
🤝 Social support as a survival strategy

What we found: paratransit is a lifeline—but often frayed. Riders endure 2+ hour rides, broken lifts, long waits in bad weather, and confusing policies just to reach care, church, or social connections.

Making the government more efficient is an admirable goal. But doing it through mass staffing reductions without a deep understanding of what these people do to support our Veterans is likely to cause avoidable harm to our patients.

4) delays in approving care outside the VA when staffing shortages make it impossible to provide timely care

3) less transportation resources to get patients to myriad medical appointments

2) longer waits to get contracting done with vendors providing these services

1) Fewer people to support administrative burden associated with paperwork needed for wheelchairs, home modifications, and resources like respite for caregivers