Many people take for granted the ability to leave the house on a whim –– for a pint of ice cream, a new book, or just to meet a friend. But for the almost 2 million Americans in wheelchairs with travel disabilities, it’s an unimaginable luxury. They face challenges taking public transportation — including too-steep accessibility ramps and the social pressure to be as quick as others — and many rideshare vehicles can’t fit a wheelchair.

In 2019, though, Lyft addressed this accessibility gap with wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) rides, in which riders are paired with drivers who can accommodate their non-folding motorized vehicle or scooter. In the cities that offer WAV rides (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, and San Francisco), one out of every 1,400 rides is a WAV ride. This addition has had a substantial impact: According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 10.1% of people with travel-limiting disabilities now compensate by using rideshare to get around. 

But raw statistics fail to convey the dramatic impact that WAV rides have had on their riders’ lives. Michael Martignetti has been using rideshare to get around Boston since 2017, primarily for physical therapy appointments but also for errands, dinners, or the occasional haircut. Prior to WAV, Martignetti relied on a door-to-door shared bus service. But because other riders had stops along the way, it often took three times as long to reach a destination. Martignetti also had to schedule any rides at least 24 hours in advance, meaning he could not leave the house if something came up at the last minute. When he got access to WAV, all that changed: “I could not do 80% of what I do without WAV,” Martignetti says. “It’s essential to my life.” 

Henrik Larsson, a WAV driver in Los Angeles, has seen firsthand how valuable the service is for the wheelchair community. “When they discover they can just call us and we’ll be there, they get so excited. And then I get excited. It’s contagious.”

In 2022, Deborah Thomas, a retired administrator for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, suffered a cardiac arrest, placing her in a wheelchair and depriving her of her old ways of getting around. “We were normal people until she had that cardiac arrest,” her daughter Gwendolyn recalls. “Everything can change in an instant.” What made everything harder was how expensive it was to get her mom the care she needed, as medical transports cost upward of $100 per ride. But all that changed with WAV. “It’s literally been a lifesaver,” says Gwendolyn. “Her recovery has been sped up by how easy it is getting out and about to appointments.”  

Indeed, healthcare appointments are a popular destination for WAV rides –– 250% more common than other Lyft rides. According to Larsson, the L.A.-based driver, the most frequent use case is heading to or from a dialysis session, where side effects of headaches and nausea tend to preclude driving for a few hours.

But the wheelchair community uses WAV for fun and errands, too, heading to airports, movie theaters, and shopping at rates very similar to the general public. WAV riders are also 50% more likely to end up at religious and civic destinations (like the YMCA) than other riders. Gwendolyn notes that since her mom’s cardiac arrest, the senior center has become a key destination for her to maintain a sense of community.

Another thing to note about WAV rides: because there is a smaller pool of riders and drivers, they are much more likely to be matched repeatedly. For instance, Martignetti in Boston has taken 443 trips with driver Xavier Cordova over the years, with Martignetti estimating he sees Cordova about four times a week. “Every time you have a trip, you have a conversation, and you get to know a few things,” Cordova says. “They know me for so long, they become sort of part of your family.”

Larsson agrees and says that driving a WAV vehicle and talking to folks about the challenges they face has given him a new perspective on his own life: “I’m learning a lot from it, like having the mindset to overcome and feel gratitude towards my own situation,” he says. “It’s been an amazing journey. You know, pun intended.”