I write as a wheelchair-bound psychologist, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 35 years, and whose 97-year-old mother uses The Ride proudly, as she did the trolley in her childhood. The MBTA’s misguided proposal to decrease the use of The Ride by passengers with disabilities, among whom are many elderly, would be financially self-defeating for the Commonwealth (“T targets weekend commuter service’’).

It is well established that the greater the social interactions between those who are typically Ride users and family and friends, the better off their physical and emotional health, for a variety of reasons. Physical disability and aging have the negative potential to be significant social ailments. We need to remember that isolation and loneliness are among the most terminal and expensive conditions of all.

Robert Shuman

Marblehead