It’s nice to be popular, but for the city’s Handi-Van service, it’s also a problem. With ridership nearing pre-pandemic numbers, the paratransit service is struggling to keep up. The service needs more vehicles of various sizes, a more responsive call service and more money — a big ask, now that the city has the rail system to run.

These are tough problems, but worth solving. This year, ridership reached 946,000, up from about 820,000 in 2022 and 670,000 in 2021. For people with disabilities, the Handi-Van can be a quality-of-life necessity.