They are back on the shuttle today taking a ride many have avoided for more than a year.
In April, I wrote about Bay State seniors and the disabled protesting the fare hike for The Ride, a special shuttle service run by the MBTA. The transportation department doubled The Ride’s $2 fare in July 2012 as part of a plan, which increased fees overall and cut services.
Riders took a page from America’s storied grass roots movements and hit the streets. It started small-- four seniors chanted, “ Ride denied” and blocked Beacon Hill traffic sitting in their wheelchairs right outside the state house. The four were arrested.
Those few were the vanguard of what became a growing passionate protest. As I noted then, The Ride was more than transportation for these seniors and those with disabilities—it helped them remain a vital part of their communities. Without The Ride many had no affordable way to get to doctor’s appointments, part time jobs, the grocery store, and visits with friends.
Many of the seniors were simply unable to squeeze the extra dollars from their already small fixed incomes. In a state survey, they reported being forced to choose between paying for their prescription drugs or groceries or The Ride. Ridership took a steep 20 percent drop.
With no indication that anything would change, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council made their members’ voices heard as weeks and months rolled by. Boston Globe reporter Martine Powers chronicled the seniors outside/inside strategy—outside rolling their wheelchairs in street demonstrations that led to further arrests; inside, calling for the rollback of the $4 fare at regularly scheduled transportation board meetings, even those in Worcester and Springfield. The old civil rights song says, “Just like a tree planted by the water, we shall not be moved.” These 21st century gray panthers were fixed in their determination; in 20 months they never missed a single meeting.
Transportation officials finally blinked, offering the wheelchair protestors and seniors a compromise $3 fare and acknowledging the group’s persistence. Some of the activists told the Globe that they felt a connection to Rosa Parks and Montgomery, Alabama’s black citizens, who in 1955 boycotted the city’s segregated bus system for one year.
The Massachusetts seniors have more transportation issues they’d like to change, but today they are marking their hard won victory by sitting tall and riding high.
