Lyft partnership offers free trips to work, grocery for those in need amid coronavirus outbreak
Lisbeth Santiago is nine months pregnant and worried about taking public transportation to get to work amid the coronavirus outbreak.
After Gov. Jay Inslee issued a statewide lockdown earlier this month, workers supporting groceries, pharmacies and other retail that sells food and beverage products were considered essential and could continue working.
That includes Santiago, who works at the Walmart on Union Avenue in Tacoma.
When she heard that the Tacoma Urban League was offering free rides through ride-sharing company Lyft, the 25-year-old reached out.
“It’s amazingly helpful,” she told The News Tribune.
Lyft contacted the Tacoma Urban League last week, asking if it was interested in participating in the LyftUp initiative.
The initiative is working to “make sure everyone has access to affordable, reliable transportation to get where they need to go — no matter their age, income, or Zip code,” according to Lyft’s website.
The program provides free rides for people in Pierce County who need to pick up groceries or need short-term transportation to an essential work site. The program will continue through the month of April.
While the program is open to anyone, it places emphasis on seniors and health care workers, said T’wina Nobles, CEO of the Tacoma Urban League.
So far, the program has helped four people, Nobles said, including a woman who had run out of food and needed a ride to the grocery store, a woman who was a caretaker of a cancer patient, and Santiago.
Santiago moved to Tacoma a year and a half ago from New Jersey.
She usually takes the bus to work, but after the spread of coronavirus, she became worried about taking public transportation. She started using masks and gloves but also worried about chemicals from materials used to clean buses.
Pierce Transit also announced last week it would be cutting bus service hours in response to coronavirus.
“You can’t help but worry,” Santiago said. “You can’t help but feel a sense of unsafeness. You don’t have control over it.”
Santiago said she has to continue to work until April 8, about a week from the time her first child, a baby girl, is due, and hopes to continue to use the Lyft program in the meantime. The program covers the cost of her trips to work and home, about $12 a day.
“I feel like times like this, everybody wants to get selfish and think of themselves,” Santiago said. “You need to do so much more than that. Start thinking about the people around you — help your neighbor. Help anybody.”
