I am concerned about the lack of NewMo vehicles for residents in the Newton Lower Falls area. I live in the Hamilton Grove Apartments with at least 100 Senior Citizens with disabilities.
As a disabled Senior Citizen living on a fixed income, it is difficult to find reliable and cost effective transportation. In our neighborhood, the closest retail, medical and other support services we need are at least 5 miles away from our building. Walking isn’t an option for us.
We’ve found that UBER, Lyft and other private transportation services are too expensive to use on a regular basis. The MBTA RIDE service isn’t very reliable and very difficult to use and requires a lot of patience. The MBTA rail and bus systems have proven to be unsafe and unreliable and restricted for Seniors in our area.
The City of Newton has cut back to having only 4 cars in the entire system and wait times are increasing up to 45 minutes to an hour for a ride, forcing seniors to use other expensive means to get around.
On weekends, it’s nearly impossible to complete more than one errand with a short morning schedule from 9AM to 12PM. Most of the time we need to take an UBER of Lyft at our own expense just to get home after a shopping errand. If the city moved NewMo weekend hours from 10AM-2PM, we can accomplish more tasks.
Having more cars available will reduce cost burdens on our residents and improve our health and social engagement options.
Please share these concerns with your readers and City Officials.
Richard Tharin
Newton Lower Falls
