The City of Newton has partnered with GoGo Technologies to provide residents with subsidized rides via services such as Lyft and Uber. This new transportation service, known as GoGo Newton, started on July 1, 2024. The City’s previous transportation service, Newton in Motion, or NewMo, will consequently be unavailable after July 12, 2024. The City stated that it made the switch due to new prioritizations of financial sustainability, as well as GoGo’s 24/7 service, broader service area, and improved customer service. Transportation via GoGo is point-to-point for each customer, while NewMo has been a shared-ride service.
Those eligible for the GoGo Newton program include residents 65 years or older, individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 living with a disability, individuals older than 18 receiving public assistance, and current NewMo users aged 60 to 64. The same eligibility criteria applied to NewMo’s services.
GoGo Newton’s service area encompasses Newton, Brookline, Needham, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, and Weston. Its predecessor, NewMo, has been available only for locations within Newton, not neighboring municipalities. (Rides via GoGo Newton still have to begin or end in Newton.) The availability of transportation to select medical facilities, such as Mass General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, remains unchanged. Both services also offer wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
While NewMo rides have been City-sponsored with flat rates of either $3 or $1, GoGo Newton provides rides subsidized by the City at variable costs based on distance, time, and traffic. Individuals have a set number of subsidized rides each month, ranging from four to 12, contingent on income, age, and physical ability status. According to the Mayor’s June 12, 2024 newsletter:
- A “very low-income” individual who is over 18 and on qualified forms of public assistance will have 12 subsidized one-way trips per month. For each of those trips, the rider would pay $4, while the City would pay $10.
- Disabled individuals who are either older than 65 or over 18 with household incomes less than $78,600 will have 8 subsidized one-way trips, for which riders would pay $6, and the City would pay $8.
- Individuals who fall within the aforementioned age range and are disabled but have a gross household income of over $78,600 will have four subsidized rides a month, for which they would pay $8 for the ride and the City would pay $6.
For all subsidized rides, regardless of income, GoGo Newton riders will have to pay any remaining fare overages, if applicable. Full GoGo Newton fares apply after individuals use up their monthly subsidized rides.
GoGo Newton also offers year-round, 24/7 service, unlike NewMo, which has been unavailable on federal holidays and is limited to 7AM to 6:30PM, Monday through Friday. (Seniors have been able to use NewMo on weekends from 9AM to 12PM.)
GoGo Newton can offer flexibility with its services because it is essentially a front-end interface to transportation services like Lyft and Uber. Additionally, unlike NewMo, GoGo does not operate its own vehicles or employ its own drivers.
Newton residents now have access to a transportation service that is more broadly available to those eligible. While the GoGo Newton service has variable costs with more limited subsidies than NewMo, it is a 24/7 service, traveling from point to point with a wider range of non-Newton destinations.
Newton residents can apply to use the GoGo Newton transportation program in any of these ways:
- Online via this form
- In-person by appointment (schedule by emailing gogo@newtonma.gov or by calling 617-796-4646)
- Drop-in session at the Newton Free Library’s Druker Auditorium:
- Monday, July 8, 4PM-6PM
- Wednesday, July 10, 12PM-2PM
Grace Yang is a Fig City News intern and a student at Newton South High School.