Options limited for senior citizens who can’t drive

Demand expected to rise in future as population ages

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Tim Doulin

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Last week, a friend drove Betty Staley from her North Side home to Graceland Shopping Center for groceries.

 

On the Fourth of July, Staley and her husband, Virgil, took a special bus to a parade.

 

Betty, 80, lost her vision, and Virgil, a 71-year-old retired autoworker, has disabilities that prevent him from driving. The Staleys, like millions of other older people across the country, rely on others for transportation.

 

More at:

http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/13/20060713-D4-00.html

Ahem! Speaking as a senior citizen ...

 

< :speech: > Sprawl, the destruction of neighborhood businesses by suburban strip malls and big-box stores, and poor funding for public transportation in most of middle America leave people of all ages with few viable alternatives to owning and driving cars. That's been said over and over, for a long time.

 

A lot has been said in various articles and public forums about dangerous elderly drivers, and there are some who ought not to be driving (some younger ones are hopeless, too). A lot of older drivers are still capable, and are aware of their limitations and drive accordingly. They're not dangerous themselves, but they're endangered by lack of traffic enforcement, and they end up in accidents caused by drivers who tailgate, speed and ignore traffic signals and signs with impunity.

 

Lack of traffic enforcement combines with speed limits that in some places are too high, to make streets and roads the near-exclusive domain of aggressive drivers at the peril of older drivers who dare to venture onto them. Our streets and roads are built and maintained with taxes paid by all citizens, and traffic laws should be enacted and enforced to provide safe access for everyone who is physically and mentally able to operate a vehicle safely. </ :speech: >

It's sad to see someone robbed of their independence simply because they're older. 

 

With that said, in college, I took a course in transportation (read:  road) engineering as part of my degree program.  The course was taught by an adjunct who worked in professional industry.  His transportation solution for the aging population?--larger signs, larger fonts on road signs, brighter colors for traffic lights and signs, and brightly painted curbs. 

 

 

^ to me that is frightening, the declining vision is not the only issue with causing accidents. the elderly have so much political clout that most states have very loose laws about retesting. heck, just recently an old fellow plowed into a crowd of 20+ people. This boomer generation also has an obsession with burbs and cars. it will only get worse.  I know an elderly lady from here in Cle that moved to FL and is now isolated and dependent, whereas here, she quit driving but felt she could get around. Maybe this aging population will change the  of the cities or increase availability of public transport options further out. I vote against bigger signs and curbs. scary.

His transportation solution for the aging population?--larger signs, larger fonts on road signs, brighter colors for traffic lights and signs, and brightly painted curbs. 

 

Does he still work for ODOT?  :evil:

modern suburbia discriminates against both the old and the young. 

modern suburbia discriminates against both the old and the young. 

well really anyone who does not drive (which includes the poor/limited income or  even disabled)

Take this issue out to a national scale and you get an idea of the magnitude of the problem.  This is why we need to diversify the way we develop and fund transportation both in Ohio and nationally.  We have a huge segment of the population that either does not or cannot drive, but should still have the freedom to be as mobile as they choose to be and not as mobile as we allow them to be. 

 

Many of us "Boomers" still have elderly parents who are still able to travel, but flying is either physically or financially a challenge and driving (for many) is out of the question (or downright scary .... you need to have driven with my Mom to understand that).  But if you provide superior local transit and fast, frequent and timely intercity rail, you open a whole new set of options for seniors or the disabled. 

 

    I suspect that older folks will stay at home in their suburban homes and do very little travelling. That's what my grandfather did in the last 10 years of his life. In fact, it became easier for him to have relatives deliver groceries than to take him shopping. He quit driving at about 85, though the car was still in the garage until the end.

 

  There is a high percentage of older folks in the first ring suburbs. I suspect that those places are really going to hurt in the next 30 years.

 

And that sort of forced inactivity takes its toll on older folks both mentally and physically.  It's bad enough to see this happen to our own parents and older relatives, but what's more disturbing is this:  what is it going to be like for you and I when we reach that age if little or nothing changes?

^ well unlike many of our parents who had a love affair for the suburbs, we should embrace city living. lots to do, great sense of community, and you do not need  a car or be dependent on someone with a car to help you live life.

Of course I empathize with senior citizens and their difficulties getting around, but the baby boomer generation wanted to get the heck out of the city where they always had city services like these for the suburbs. Now they will start making the demands for these services out in the suburbs, which is great, but it's just another indication of their selfish and hypocritical nature.

3200 or so senior citizens could be impacted in Warren.  From the 7/26/06 Warren Tribune Chronicle:

 

Seniors could lose ride

By JOHN GOODALL Tribune Chronicle

 

WARREN — Officials are struggling to resolve a dispute over ride costs that is endangering transportation for 3,200 senior citizens in Trumbull County.

 

Niles Mayor Ralph Infante, who heads the system, said he will shut it down unless it gets the $151,000 he said the county promised.

 

Meanwhile, commissioners allowed their final July meeting to pass Tuesday without taking action to rescue the Niles-Trumbull Transit System.

 

Fullstory at:

 

http://tribune-chronicle.com/articles.asp?articleID=6621

 

Well, problem solved (for now):

 

 

Transit to get levy funding

By JOHN GOODALL Tribune Chronicle

 

WARREN — Niles-Trumbull Transit System apparently will get the $151,000 it was seeking from the county to continue operations.

 

A resolution to award the funds to the transportation system is on Thursday’s Trumbull County commissioners’ agenda. The money will come from the senior services levy.

 

Niles Mayor Ralph Infante had threatened to close the system at the end of its program year this fall if it didn’t receive the $151,000 he said was promised from the county to partially fund NTTS.

 

More at:

 

http://tribune-chronicle.com/articles.asp?articleID=6953

 

Great article in Urban Cincy recently highlighting this very real problem:

 

‘Transportation poverty’ predicted for Cincinnati’s aging Baby Boomer population

 

By: Randy A. Simes

October 26, 2011 – 8:00 am

 

A new report, Aging in Place, Stuck without Options: Fixing the Mobility Crisis Threatening the Baby Boom Generation, released by Transportation for America finds that more than 64 percent of Cincinnati’s population between the ages of 65 and 79 will have poor transit access by 2015. In the Cincinnati metropolitan area, that accounts for approximately 200,000 people.

 

The Cincinnati region is not alone when it comes to providing adequate transit options to a growing aging population. Out of 48 regions studied with 1-3 million people, Cincinnati ranked as the 17th worst. Columbus and Cleveland, meanwhile, ranked as the 18th and 24th worst respectively.

 

The lack of transit options provided in the regions studied is matched by an increasing number of seniors utilizing public transit. A 2011 report from the AARP Public Policy Institute found that the total number of trips by seniors on public transit grew 51 percent between 2001 and 2009, and that seniors now account for nearly 10 percent of all trips taken on public transit in the United States.

And that sort of forced inactivity takes its toll on older folks both mentally and physically.

This can't be stressed enough. My mom had poor circulation & was starting in on alzheimer's. She never drove and still walked to places in her 80s, but the alzies was kinda scary so she moved into a retirement place. Everything was given to her - she didn't have to think & the place was so isolated, she couldn't walk anywhere. Her decline was seriously accelerated.

Warehousing the elderly & keeping them out of sight is no good.