How the MBTA simplified paratransit eligibility with Spare
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For many transit agencies, the paratransit eligibility process has long been a source of frustration - for staff, medical professionals, and most importantly, riders. Paperwork piles up, timelines drag on, and tracking cases often feels like a guessing game.
Enter Spare Eligibility. Spare changes that by centralizing and automating the entire process in one digital platform - erasing the paperwork and the wait.
What is Spare Eligibility and how it works
Spare Eligibility is a comprehensive solution that modernizes how agencies process, track, and enforce paratransit rider eligibility. It replaces outdated spreadsheets, clunky databases, and manual workflows with a single intuitive platform.
Agencies can manage applications, assessments, and determinations digitally while riders gain a clear, accessible way to apply and track their case. Spare also integrates directly with operations, ensuring that eligibility outcomes instantly connect to scheduling and trip booking.u
Why modernizing the ADA paratransit eligibility process matters
For agencies
- Consolidates previously scattered systems into one source of truth.
- Experience significant time savings from automation, allowing for a shift in efforts toward improving internal processes and enhancing the overall experience.
- Automates conditional eligibility enforcement to ensure compliance with ADA’s 21-day timeline.
- Streamlines collaboration across staff and medical professionals, while offering better data visibility and reporting.
For riders
- Eliminates long waits and confusing paperwork.
- Offers a digital hub to apply online, by mail, or over the phone.
- Provides transparent case tracking so riders always know where they stand.
- Ensures faster access to services like dialysis or cancer treatment through bridge programs for urgent needs.
How MBTA moved from paperwork to digital applications
Before Spare, MBTA’s eligibility and operations processes were scattered across Mobility Direct, Jotform, and countless Excel spreadsheets. Outages, inflexible reporting, and siloed data created frustration for both staff and riders.
With Spare Eligibility, MBTA has unified all workflows into one platform. That means:
- ADA Eligibility: From intake and application to appointment scheduling, assessment travel confirmation, and determination letters - all in Spare.
- MBTA’s Eligibility center uses Spare Operations to book assessment rides, preventing miscommunication and missed trips - avoiding poor rider experiences and missed pick-ups.
- MBTA’s Eligibility center uses Spare Operations to book assessment rides, preventing miscommunication and missed trips - avoiding poor rider experiences and missed pick-ups.
- Appeals: Automated and centralized, making reviews faster and more transparent.
- Travel Training: Brought into the same system for better coordination and visibility.
- Visitor and Medical Necessity Programs: Streamlined to ensure riders can quickly access short-term or urgent services.
Automating eligibility to save time and stay ADA compliant
MBTA now leverages Spare’s automated workflows to handle dozens of steps in the eligibility process, keeping everything aligned with ADA regulations. The result: assessors can do their jobs faster, riders spend less time waiting, and the entire system runs with greater consistency.
Integration with operations also allows MBTA staff to directly book trips for interviews and assessments, eliminating unnecessary hand-offs and delays. Reservationists and managers can see both a rider’s travel history and their eligibility status at once, empowering them to provide faster, more accurate support.
See how Spare Eligibility can simplify your process too
The shift at MBTA is a glimpse into what’s possible for agencies everywhere. Spare Eligibility doesn’t just digitize paperwork - it creates a seamless ecosystem where agencies run more efficiently and riders feel cared for, informed, and connected.
By erasing the burden of waiting and confusion, Spare helps agencies put accessibility and rider experience at the center of their paratransit programs.
Want to learn how Spare supports paratransit operations like the MBTA’s? Get in touch with our team.
Spare recognizes the importance of partnering with and listening to transit professionals to make improvements and to develop new features and enhancements. In Austin, they have met with drivers, dispatchers, customers, schedulers, and management and we are seeing excellent results.
