Minnesotans with disabilities say Lyft, Uber departure would leave them stuck

Matthew Grathwol takes a Lyft to doctors appointments and business meetings. Jessica Felixberger uses the app to visit family, the library and church. Rachel Eggert relies on it to get to her job at US Bank Stadium and to catch Timberwolves and Lynx games.

Rideshare companies have become the primary transportation option for thousands of Minnesotans who have disabilities or health conditions and do not drive. Many said they are watching anxiously as Lyft and Uber have threatened to leave town following the Minneapolis City Council's vote to boost driver pay.

"I use Lyft and Uber like a lot of other people would use their personal car," said Corbb O'Connor, president of the National Federation for the Blind Minnesota. "We've become dependent on this service in a lot of ways."

Whether the rideshare companies will actually leave on May 1 has yet to be seen, and Minneapolis leaders are debating potential tweaks to their ordinance that sets a minimum pay for drivers. Lyft, which many people with disabilities rely on, has said it would only leave Minneapolis while Uber has threatened to stop serving the Twin Cities.

Gov. Tim Walz said they are playing "a game of chicken with folks in the disability community" who depend on the companies.

The DFL governor recently said city officials should have waited to hear the results of a newly released state study before raising driver pay. The study suggests the rates City Council members set are higher than needed to achieve the goal of ensuring drivers receive at least minimum wage.

Many Minnesotans with disabilities use Medicaid waivers to cover rideshare service costs. Nonprofit ConnectAbility of MN helps coordinate transportation, including Lyft rides, for people with waivers. They estimated thousands of people they serve would be affected by the rideshare company's departure, including 2,128 people who live in Minneapolis.

Sheri Wegner, who runs the nonprofit, predicted a cascade of negative consequences if the company left the city. Some people with disabilities would not be able to get to their jobs, leading to financial instability and increased insolation, she said.

"This is affecting the whole person," she said.

Grathwol, of Minneapolis, uses a waiver to pay for his Lyft rides to get medication, grab groceries and meet about his fledging business, Lake Mushroom Coffee. His family wrote several letters to the Minneapolis City Council urging them to keep the rideshare company in the city. It has allowed Grathwol, who has a schizo-affective bipolar diagnosis, to restore "his autonomy and independence," they wrote.

"I am disabled, but I am doing really well," said Grathwol, who plans to attend Metropolitan State University. "The chance of getting off disability requires the movement of me throughout the city, and without that I am really stuck."

While people with disabilities will be hurt by the potential loss of the service, there are also rideshare drivers with disabilities who stand to benefit from the wage change, noted David Fenley, the Americans with Disabilities Act director at the Minnesota Council on Disability.

He said Lyft and Uber do not have a strong track record of providing accessible services. Both companies have faced lawsuits related to ADA complaints.

Rideshare companies have rejected rides for people with service animals and lack vehicles that can accommodate wheelchairs, said Sam Jasmine, who serves on the Metropolitan Council'sTransportation Accessibility Advisory Committee and is blind.

"If you are going to allow a system to come into the city and cut into regular cab business, shouldn't you demand that they provide rides for all people?" Jasmine said. "If they want to leave, let them leave. And then work on the cab companies who are here and have sunk money into mobility accessible cabs and insist that they put in a plan that can give everyone secure rides."

Other transportation providers, including taxi companies, have said they are able to take on higher demand if the rideshare companies leave.

"Serving people with disabilities, that's what our drivers do best," said Jeremy Kramer with Blue and White Taxi, one of a number of taxi companies that frequently handles medical transportation. Kramer said their drivers have gone through training that many rideshare drivers have not.

However, several Minnesotans with disabilities said they have found taxi companies to be more expensive and less available. The number of licensed cab drivers in Minneapolis plummeted as rideshare companies took over the market in the past decade.

"You can't just decide that a cab is going to be the solution," Wegner said, adding that the price of a cab ride from the suburbs to Minneapolis might be too expensive for some rides with waivers.

Metro Mobility, the Met Council service that provides rides for people with disabilities and health conditions, could see an uptick in use if the rideshare companies leave Minneapolis, said Charles Carlson, the council's executive director of Metropolitan Transportation Services. But he said there's "not necessarily a lot of overlap" between people who take rideshare services and Metro Mobility users.

Some people with disabilities said the Metro Mobility system doesn't function the way they want, in large part because riders generally have to schedule a ride a couple days in advance.

Jasmine, who lives in Plymouth, said her home is outside Metro Mobility's federally required service area. For a while they were refusing almost all of her ride requests, but she said she pushed back and has seen service improve.

Felixberger, of Inver Grove Heights, frequently used Metro Mobility before the rideshare system became her daily go-to. She said Metro Mobility drivers often ran late — sometimes 30 minutes to an hour late — and what should have been a quick trip could drag on for two hours as the driver made stops for other passengers.

"It makes me feel more independent being able to use Lyft," she said, noting transit access is limited in her area.

Felixberger uses a Dakota County program that partners with Lyft to provide rides to people with disabilities who have waivers. About 1,600 people in the county are eligible for Lyft rides, said Dakota County Transportation Coordinator Robyn Bernardy. The average person takes 26 rides a month, using Lyft to get to work, the grocery store, volunteer opportunities and even dates.

The program has allowed people who live in Dakota County to go to school in Minneapolis and hold a dream job in the city, Bernardy said, and Lyft's departure "would be devastating."

Staff writer Erin Adler contributed to this report.

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