Onondaga County and Lyft team up to fill transportation gap

ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Onondaga County and Lyft are working together to provide a pathway out of poverty for people in our community.

The pilot program includes three companies: Brophy Services, Loretto and Giovanni Foods. It aims to fill the transportation gap when and where Centro doesn’t operate. 

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said, “Let’s deal with this transportation barrier. Let’s get this under control. We can do this. This is something we can really make progress on. We’re kind of ahead of the curve with this partnership.” 

“We provide them the platform to be able to request the ride on someone else’s behalf, and for that ride to be funded by the county versus being funded by that individual.  So they go onto this platform, they request the ride, the rider will receive a text message letting them know the driver is on the way, the license plate, so they have the relevant information to get into that ride properly,” said Matt Rodrigues, General Manager, Greater New York at Lyft. “This opportunity to help solve certain transportation gaps is a thing we care deeply about and why we want to work with Syracuse and Onondaga County to make it happen.” 

Transportation costs for people on temporary assistance are already covered by the county, so they say this is not an additional cost to taxpayers.

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