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T's Uber, Lyft partnership shows promise

Posted on October 3, 2016

By Thomas Farragher, Boston Globe

Emily Crockett had a golf-ball-sized brain tumor removed when she was just 6 years old. It robbed her of her eyesight, but she survived — and then thrived. I followed her through her freshman year at Harvard for a Globe series. That long-ago bus ride ended at South Station, where we boarded the Red Line to Harvard Square.

When the train pulled into Downtown Crossing, the public address system worked fine. Then it conked out. As the train poked along toward Harvard Square, Emily sat silently. I wondered whether to prompt her when we arrived at our stop. She paused briefly, nudged me, and announced: “We get off here.’’

She had learned not to rely on the T’s technological prowess. She had counted the stops. And she had found her way.

I have no doubt that Emily would have been a chief cheerleader of the MBTA’s new relationship with the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft. Like other users, she found the T’s service for customers with disabilities — The Ride — to be something short of user friendly.

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