(C|NET) If Harriet Lowell wants to travel more than just a few blocks, she usually has to plan far in advance. That’s because she’s disabled and uses a motorized wheelchair, and it takes at least 24 hours to schedule a ride with a paratransit van.
Where Lowell lives, just north of New York City in White Plains, paratransit vans are the only for-hire vehicles equipped with wheelchair lifts and ramps. That means no quick runs to the grocery store or just dropping by a friend’s house — unless her husband drives her. And when there’s an emergency, like the time her husband was rushed to the ER with a pulmonary embolism, things get complicated. Continue reading.