Senior Transportation in Tennessee: Rides for Seniors (2026)

When an older adult in Tennessee stops driving, the hard part isn't that rides don't exist. It's that there is no single senior transportation program in Tennessee, only several separate systems, each with its own rules and its own front door. The state's aging network offers rides through the Older Americans Act, run by the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging through nine Area Agencies on Aging and Disability. Public transit like Nashville's WeGo must offer door-to-door paratransit to riders who can't use the bus. TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, covers medical rides through transportation brokers. And a volunteer and private layer fills the gaps.1,2,3 Which door you knock on depends on who your parent is and where they're going, and one phone call to your local Area Agency on Aging sorts most of it out.4

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Why There's No Single Senior Transportation Program in Tennessee
• Tennessee's Aging Network: Older Americans Act Rides
• WeGo Access, MATAplus, and ADA Paratransit in Tennessee
• Medical Trips: TennCare NEMT, and Why Medicare Usually Won't
• MyRide TN and the Volunteer Layer
• Which Tennessee Senior Transportation Option Fits Which Trip
• How to Start: One Phone Call
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Why There's No Single Senior Transportation Program in Tennessee

Families across Tennessee go looking for "the senior transportation program" and can't find it, because it isn't one thing. What exists instead is a set of separate systems, each with its own rules, its own paperwork, and its own idea of who it's for. One is built around age, one around disability, one around who insures your parent's health care, and one around whoever in the community is willing to drive.

That sounds like a mess, and from the outside it is. But it resolves into a simple question you can answer trip by trip: who is the rider, and where are they going? A ride to dialysis for someone on TennCare runs through a different door than a ride to the grocery store for a 72-year-old in Chattanooga who just let their license lapse. The rest of this guide walks the menu one option at a time, adapted for Tennessee, then lines the options up so you can match each to the trip in front of you.

Tennessee's Aging Network: Older Americans Act Rides

Start here, because it's the widest door and the least known. The Older Americans Act requires that a protected share of each area's funding go to a set of "access services," and transportation is named among them, right alongside information and assistance and case management.1 That makes rides for older adults a funded part of the aging network rather than a favor a local agency does when it has room.

In Tennessee, that network has a specific shape. The Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging, which absorbed the former Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability in 2024, administers Older Americans Act programs through nine Area Agencies on Aging and Disability (AAADs) that together cover all 95 counties, and transportation is one of the supportive services those agencies fund.7 The Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging describes transportation as vital to older adults' independence, noting that without it, getting to healthcare, food and pharmacy, shopping, and social activities becomes nearly impossible (Tennessee Transportation Assistance).

Two features make this the first call.

• No income test. An Area Agency on Aging and its providers may not means test for a service for which contributions are accepted, and may not turn away an older adult who won't or can't contribute.5 Your parent may be invited to chip in voluntarily, but savings don't disqualify them.
• Age 60, not 65. The Act defines an "older individual" as someone 60 or older, so the threshold is 60, not 65.8

What the ride itself looks like is local, and might be a senior-center van, a dial-a-ride service, a volunteer driver, or a voucher, depending on your AAAD. Because the local program has a local name, the way to find it is to ask the agency directly. Tennessee runs a single statewide referral line, 1-866-836-6678, that routes you from anywhere in the state to your nearest Area Agency on Aging and Disability, and it publishes a directory of AAADs by region.7 Our guide to finding and using your Area Agency on Aging covers that call in full.

WeGo Access, MATAplus, and ADA Paratransit in Tennessee

This is the option families most often don't know is a legal right. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a public transit agency that runs a local fixed-route system, whether that's buses, a streetcar, or light rail, must also provide complementary paratransit, a door-to-door or curb-to-curb ride, to people whose disability keeps them from using the regular fixed-route service. One carve-out is worth knowing before you call: the requirement does not apply to commuter bus, commuter rail, or intercity rail systems, so those operators owe no complementary paratransit. The service has to be comparable to the fixed-route system it shadows, cover origins and destinations within three-fourths of a mile of a route during the same days and hours, and cost no more than twice the regular fare.2

In Nashville and Davidson County, that ride has a name: WeGo Access, run by WeGo Public Transit (the former Nashville MTA). A few Tennessee-specific details are worth knowing before you apply:

• Coverage and hours. WeGo Public Transit describes Access as a publicly funded paratransit service that provides specialized vans and door-to-door service within Davidson County for people with disabilities who are unable to use fixed-route transit. Service operates from 4:45 a.m. to 1 a.m. seven days a week including holidays, and reservations can be requested one to seven days in advance (WeGo Access).
• Low fare. A WeGo Access trip costs $3.70, in line with the federal rule that holds a paratransit fare to no more than twice the regular fixed-route fare (WeGo Access).2
• Function, not age. You must first be certified as ADA-eligible, which turns on whether a disability prevents fixed-route use rather than on how old you are. To reach an eligibility specialist, call 615-880-3596; to book a certified rider's trip, call 615-880-3970 (WeGo Access).

In Memphis and Shelby County, the equivalent service is MATAplus, run by the Memphis Area Transit Authority. MATA describes MATAplus as curb-to-curb public transportation, available only in Memphis and Shelby County, for anyone who cannot independently use its fixed-route buses or trolleys because of a physical, cognitive, or visual disability (MATAplus). As with WeGo Access, a rider applies and is assessed before riding.

WeGo Access and MATAplus cover only their metro regions. Elsewhere in Tennessee, smaller city and county transit systems that run local fixed routes carry the same ADA paratransit obligation, and rural areas without fixed-route transit lean on the aging network's rides instead. If your parent lives outside Nashville or Memphis, ask your local public transit provider for its ADA paratransit application, or ask your Area Agency on Aging and Disability what serves the county.

Medical Trips: TennCare NEMT, and Why Medicare Usually Won't

When the trip is to a medical appointment, the rules change, and the single most useful thing to know is which program insures your parent.

TennCare rides. Non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is a required part of every state's Medicaid program: a state must ensure necessary transportation for its beneficiaries to and from their providers.3 According to TennCare, transportation is available to members who do not have access to it, members can schedule rides to any TennCare-covered service, and a ride must be booked at least two business days before the appointment (TennCare Transportation). TennCare delivers the benefit through transportation brokers tied to each member's managed care plan: BlueCare and TennCare Select members schedule through Verida, while UnitedHealthcare and Wellpoint members schedule through Tennessee Carriers (TennCare Transportation).9 This is a payer benefit, not an aging-network one, so it's the right door specifically for medical trips for a TennCare member. See our guide to TennCare covered services for how the program's benefits fit together.

Original Medicare works differently. Under Traditional Medicare, Part B covers ambulance transportation, and only in defined circumstances: when traveling in any other vehicle could endanger your health, and only to the nearest appropriate medical facility. An ordinary ride to a routine appointment is generally not covered.6 That surprises Tennessee families, and it's the source of a lot of unexpected bills. If your parent has a Medicare Advantage plan rather than Original Medicare, check the plan: some Advantage plans in Tennessee add a limited transportation benefit, but it is a plan feature, not something Medicare itself guarantees.

MyRide TN and the Volunteer Layer

Underneath the funded programs is a patchwork that often does the everyday work of getting an older Tennessean to a hair appointment, a place of worship, or a friend's house. Tennessee's most visible piece of this layer is a statewide volunteer network worth knowing by name.

As the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging describes it, MyRide TN is an expanding, senior-friendly volunteer transportation service in which screened, trained volunteer drivers use their personal vehicles to carry older Tennesseans to a variety of destinations, including medical appointments and grocery stores. Rides run Monday through Friday with priority given to doctor appointments; participants are 60 and older who live and walk independently but no longer drive, and drivers provide door-through-door service (MyRide TN). MyRide is a membership program, and each local program sets its own membership fee and per-ride cost, so what you pay depends on where your parent lives. Local MyRide and affiliated programs operate across the state; your Area Agency on Aging and Disability can tell you which one serves your county.

Beyond MyRide, the rest of this layer varies most from one Tennessee town to the next:

• Volunteer driver programs. Beyond MyRide, many communities run their own volunteer programs, sometimes coordinated by a senior center, a county office on aging, or a faith community. Availability and cost vary widely by county, so ask the Area Agency on Aging and Disability what operates locally.
• Ride-share and concierge services. App-based ride services, and phone-based concierge services built for people who don't use smartphones, can fill in for spontaneous trips. These are private and paid out of pocket, and quality and coverage vary, but for a parent who can still transfer in and out of a car independently they can be the simplest option for an unplanned trip.
• Senior centers and community shuttles. Some Tennessee senior centers, retirement communities, and grocery or medical facilities run their own shuttles on set routes and days.

None of this layer beyond the funded programs is an entitlement, which is exactly why the Area Agency on Aging and Disability, whose job is to know the local map, is the efficient place to ask.

Which Tennessee Senior Transportation Option Fits Which Trip

The menu resolves into a matching problem. Line the options up against who the rider is, what the trip is for, and what it costs, and the right door usually picks itself.

Read it as a decision, not a ranking. A TennCare member going to dialysis starts with their plan's broker. A 68-year-old in Knoxville who just stopped driving and wants to keep getting to the grocery store and church starts with the Area Agency on Aging and Disability and, if a disability keeps them off the bus, a WeGo Access or local paratransit application. Most families end up using more than one, one for medical trips and another for everything else.

How to Start: One Phone Call

For everything except the TennCare medical benefit, the same first call does the sorting. In Tennessee, the fastest entry point is the state's toll-free line, 1-866-836-6678, which routes you from anywhere in the state to the Area Agency on Aging and Disability for your parent's county.7 You can also reach the same local agencies through the national Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116, a free public service that connects you to the agency for your parent's address.4 Look it up by the address where your parent lives, not where you live, because the agency is defined by their location.

When you reach the agency, name the actual trips: "My father is 74, lives in Hamilton County, no longer drives, and needs to get to a cardiologist twice a month and to the grocery store weekly." A specific request gets a specific answer, which local programs exist, whether he'd qualify for paratransit, and what each one costs. If your parent is on TennCare, also contact their plan's transportation broker for medical rides, since that benefit runs on a separate track.

Learn More

Find personalized help arranging transportation for an older adult in Tennessee who no longer drives at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.