Being in a season of elderly caregiving comes with many new things to learn, like finding wheelchair transportation for someone. Sure, you could buy a wheelchair accessible vehicle, or do a Handicap Vehicle Conversion on a minivan, but that’s likely outside of the budget for most of us.
Plus, there’s a lot of different terms used, so finding info and resources was challenging, like accessibility, mobility solutions, side-entry, rear-entry, handicap, adaptive driving equipment, and more. And many kinds of wheelchair users: ambulatory, power, sports, disability, etc. Please be careful to use good etiquette & inclusive language.
All we wanted to do was to get a ride for our 80+ year old relative in a wheelchair, to church on Sundays. We had previously hired a private transportation service for several other events, but those were expensive expenses. Was there a better way? Some local communities provide wheelchair accessible transportation, usually requiring scheduling in advance, and not often having door-to-door service. Our situation needed door-to-door transportation for a caregiver & person in wheelchair, not to use public transportation.
Just last weekend, we discovered a God-send with Uber and Lyft offering wheelchair accessible vehicles for basically the same price as a normal ride share! (some articles I found said it’s more comparable to cost of an Uber X ride)
So instead of paying $100+ for a private wheelchair transport, we paid around $10 to $15 per ride for nearby locations. For the record, our wait time for pick up in the Arcadia area, east Los Angeles county, was 15 to 20 minutes. Also note: scheduling a ride is not available (currently) and WAVs may have limited availability (so prepare to have a plan B.)
Wheelchair ride sharing is currently available in a limited number of cities and areas, and more locations are being added constantly. The best way to check availability is use the Uber app or Lyft app. (note: on the Lyft app, go to Settings to enable wheelchair accessible vehicles, because by default, that setting is toggled off.)
List of Cities with WAV on Uber and Lyft
At the time of this post, these cities & areas have WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicles)—
Uber WAV: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, Orange County (California), Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC
Lyft Access: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco
cf. 17 Cities with Wheelchair Accessible Uber or Lyft,
Ride in a WAV on Uber or Lyft app
This is an example fare for a ride from Long Beach to LAX. Here’s a couple example screenshots of what it looks like in the app to choose a ride in a WAV:
more about wheelchair transport on Uber and Lyft
- A Guide to Using Uber and Lyft: Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle
- Wheelchair-accessible vehicles available on Lyft in several cities
- What Size Uber Do I Need For A Wheelchair?
- How to request a WAV on Uber
- Wheelchair accessible rides are here for you on Lyft
- More Wheelchair Users in California Turn to Rideshare – Lyft
- What is Uber WAV and How Does It Work? (also)
- The outsize impact of wheelchair-accessible vehicles – Lyft’s WAV effort
Aside: After spending hours myself on finding this info, I hope this blog post will make it easier and faster for many more people to find wheelchair transportation conveniently and share this great intel’.
info wiki for local wheelchair transportation?
What if there was a crowdsourced wiki with current info for wheelchair transportation? I don’t have the time or knowledge to populate the wiki by my lonesome, and from what I’ve seen in my web research so far, there is a ton of info scattered all over the web, so it’d take significant effort to gather info and also to keep it updated and current.
I’m not connected into the online communities where people using wheelchairs share resources with one another, so this info might be already easily or readily accessible somewhere. If not, it’d be so valuable to create afresh. If you know of one, please add a comment and freely share. Let’s help one another together.
Resources for Wheelchair Transportation & Wheelchair Travel
wheelchairtravel.org – “Open Your World through accessible travel! Whether you’re disabled, know someone who is—join me as I explore the world with one hand, a passport and my power wheelchair.”
Wheelchair Jimmy ~ a Source for Information on Wheelchair Accessible Travel & Leisure
World on Wheels ~ blog with info and resources for accessible travel
Local WAV options – list compiled by Lyft #mostvaluable ~ “Local companies may provide wheelchair-accessible transit options near you. Many companies request you book a ride at least 24 hours in advance.”
reddit.com/r/wheelchairs – subreddit with 13k members, people who have experiences with using wheelchairs
Senior Transportation Services Caregivers Need to Know https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/home-care/info-2020/transportation-services.html
a list of wheelchair transport services in Los Angeles (LA) County and Orange County (OC) California
- Access Services https://accessla.org
- QuickMed Transportation https://quickmedtransport.com ~ San Gabriel
- Cityride dial-a-ride (DAR) https://www.ladottransit.com/cityride/ ~ The Cityride DAR service offers Cityride participants low-cost, shared rides for pre-scheduled trips of 10 miles or less. The program’s wheelchair accessible vehicles include Cityride-branded vans
- https://www.arcadiaca.gov/shape/development_services_department/transportation_services/dial-a-ride_service.php City of Arcadia, CA
- Ride With Us Transportation https://www.ridewith-us.com/ ~ LA County
- Uplift Transport https://uplifttransport.com/uplift-transportation-local-ride-request/ for the OC
- CA Transport https://thecatransport.com ~ Orange County and LA County
- Wellness Transit https://www.wellnesstransitllc.com ~ Los Angeles County & Orange County
- Helping Hands Transport https://hhtransports.com ~ San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles county.
- PNR Transport https://ridepnr.com ~ Orange County
- Safer Medical Transport https://safermedicaltransport.com/ ~ Orange County
- ridewithricky https://ridewithricky.com ~ Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
- Medix Transportation https://www.medixtransportation.com ~ LA County, Santa Clarita
- Coach Transportation https://coach-transportation.com ~ service areas include LA, Camarillo, Santa Barbara, Simi Valley
Wheelchair accessible rides on LYFT (according to app on 1/10/25)
“Available 7 AM to 12 midnight for pickups and drop-offs in LA
County.”
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