Media mogul Burt Cohen inspires Bloomington company’s aid for people with mobility issues

At 93, media mogul Burt Cohen still lives an active life.

The former owner and president of MSP Communications and founding publisher of the company’s flagship product, Mpls.St.Paul magazine, has lunch or a business meeting at least three times a week with some of the most well-known leaders in the Twin Cities.

Cohen is a life trustee at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and sits on the president’s council for the Minnesota Opera. He also regularly volunteers his time with organizations such as Children’s Theater Company and once served on the University of Minnesota’s alumni board, the school’s College of Liberal Arts business advisory council and its School of Music advisory board.

For nearly a year, Edwards RideCare, a Bloomington tech and ride-service company, has provided Cohen’s transportation to all his meetings. Their relationship led to the company’s founders creating a remote-controlled seat that can lift individuals with mobility issues into passenger vehicles.

“This is an incredible asset and resource to the community,” Cohen said. “It’s always on time and courteous. I always have the same driver. It’s an incredibly wonderful resource for me.”

Until Edwards RideCare, Cohen’s attempts to find a reliable and comfortable ride-service company were unsuccessful. He no longer drives and because of a significant loss of cartilage in his knees, he has trouble walking, let alone standing, and needs the assistance of a walker.

Getting in and out of standard vehicles is extremely painful, he said, and he lacks the strength needed to climb into vans or SUVs, most of which can’t fit into the underground garage of his building, where he prefers to be picked up to avoid using steps. Most service providers he contacted only booked one-way trips, with return trips based on driver availability.

Known as a relentless civic volunteer with unmatchable wit, Cohen found that a lack of transportation had become a barrier for his way of life, one he spent years building until his retirement a decade ago.

“The alternative would be staying at home,” Cohen said from his Edina residence. “The downside to that is loneliness and a lack of stimulation.”

One of Cohen’s children stumbled upon Edwards RideCare. It’s become the only way he gets around the Twin Cities.

“This enables me to continue my relationship to the city and the community in a way I otherwise simply couldn’t,” he said.

During the pandemic, the founders of Edwards RideCare designed a virus barrier and air filtration system to separate the air between the front and back seats of vehicles and protect passengers and drivers from virus infections.

They offered rides in their infection-free cars at no charge to nurses working the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak. When nurses suggested that they offer the service to their senior patients, they turned it into a business.

As they built a relationship with Cohen, the founders noticed it was getting increasingly difficult for him to enter vehicles. The revelation shed light on a growing trend around the metro area — a large segment of people aging out of driving and becoming less mobile.

After six months of development, they created the first commercial use of the SmartSeat service in North America, said co-founder and president Darrell Lynds. The company’s custom-built software remembers the profile setting of each passenger, allowing the driver to adjust the seat’s settings to a person’s weight, preferred motion and height placement.

The first model was installed in a standard Chrysler Voyager minivan, giving passengers the opportunity to ride in regular vehicles with friends and family.

“One of the things we think is important from a senior perspective is the dignity of using a regular vehicle,” said chief executive Kevin Spanbauer. “There’s a bit of a stigma with a wheelchair van. All of the loading and unloading. Now they can ride in a regular passenger vehicle.”

Edwards RideCare’s new model still includes high-efficiency and hospital-grade air filtration systems, but the filtration devices are attached to the back of headrests. The systems suck air from the front of the car, cleaning it, and distribute it to the back.

The company also has launched ThoughtfulOffers, a software system run on a tablet mounted in the vehicle that displays images and coupons that can be cashed in on the route home.

In addition to seniors, the company is fielding requests from people who are recovering from injuries or surgeries and are unable to drive. The average cost for a ride in the new model is $55, less than the typical cost to ride in a wheelchair van, Lynds said.

“It’s opened up a new market to us,” Spanbauer said.

The founders of Edwards RideCare want to place their vehicles at senior living centers across the Twin Cities, which they’ll operate under an initiative called the Preferred Partner program. Their mission is to keep clients engaged with friends and family to maintain mental and physical health.

Edwards RideCare can provide up to 12 rides per day in its new model, but to reach more seniors, the company’s founders plan to build a fleet of more than 80 vehicles in the next two years. By expanding the technology and making it more accessible, they can better counter mental and physical deterioration associated with isolation for seniors and those with mobility issues.

“That is the enemy we are fighting,” Lynds said. “Seniors become isolated from their families, from business associates, and that’s the number one threat to your health.”

For Cohen, maintaining his social connectedness was imperative. After building a portfolio of medical publications and working for the New York Times, he bought Mpls.St.Paul magazine with $300,000 of savings and borrowings in 1978.

At the time, the magazine was losing several hundred thousand dollars a year. In the ensuing 10 years, he built the magazine into revenues of millions of dollars while running other publications such as Scene, the monthly program guide for Twin Cities Public Television; Arts, the monthly magazine for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Guthrie Theater program magazine, and Twin Cities Business.

“I have to be mobile,” Cohen said. “I can continue to be stimulated and be in community and belong to a community in ways that I may be able to contribute a small something. That gives me a very good feeling.”