How A Transportation Service Is Helping Upper West Side Seniors

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A transportation van service is helping Upper West Side senior citizens make their way around town and feel comfortable doing so.

"It really is the best way to get there; the bus and subway can present problems," Upper West Side resident Rhoda Glass, 82, said about her experience with the Project CART program.

The program is run by the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, which provides rides to senior citizens looking to get to museums, shows, cultural events, or just a grocery store.

Project CART has run five days a week for the last 40 years. It currently is available to residents from the bottom of Manhattan to 96th street on the east side and 110th street on the west side, but has a particularly strong connection with the Upper West Side.

Glass, who has used the service since 2015, is also the president of the Advisory Council of the Hamilton Senior Center/PROJECT FIND at 141 W. 73rd St., and has been helping organize group trips crosstown to Costco and the East River Plaza Mall for the past eight years.

"The drivers are great, we often have the same one who has a sense of humor and makes us laugh," Glass said. "I call a couple of weeks to a month in advance and schedule the trip.”

Holly Zinn, who is the director of Lincoln House Outreach NORC retirement community at West 66th Street and West End Avenue, is also a committed Upper West Side community member to the program.

She organizes four trips a month for older adult residents at Lincoln House.

“We have a very loyal following with these trips,” Zinn said. “Three are devoted to shopping and one trip a month is something special, like visits to the New York Botanical Garden, City Island, the Morgan Library, the Whitney, Coney Island or a Broadway show.”

One of those residents, 80-year-old Sheila Stranger, said the trips were a "special treat" with the friendly drivers.

Project CART requests that people schedule trips as far in advance as possible and at least 24 hours in advance. It runs between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. You can schedule a ride by calling (212) 956-0855.