I Can't Drive (After 85?)

Exactly one month ago, I wrote about designing communities for the elderly. Just last Friday, I read about a local elderly couple who went to the store and got lost coming home. They spent the next 30 hours driving around trying to find their home, sparking a statewide senior alert that included a helicopter search and some 14,000 phone calls by the police looking for leads.

Luckily, the couple were found safely about 125 miles way, in another state. But others have not fared so well and the question of when should a senior's license should be revoked can provoke heated debate. Indeed, there have been times when my own grandmother has come back from an errand with no recollection on how the dents and scratches on her car's bumper got there.

Of course, like all age groups, there are always good and bad drivers, and there are many very capable senior citizens who drive better than those half their age. This post is in no way designed to poke fun at elderly drivers, but rather, to bring to light some of the implications of aging drivers.

In a country where cars symbolize freedom, we often forget that driving is a privilege and not a right. The question is further exacerbated when you factor in the fact that most communities in America are not pedestrian-friendly and require a car to get around. As the driver in the opening story said, "If they're going to take my license away from me, they might as well put me in an institution."

From a housing perspective, the notion of zoning, with dedicated residential and commercial sectors of a town distinctly separated, may not be the best solution in the long run. It's one thing to pack up the kids and take the minivan to the grocery store across town once a week when you're younger and mobile, but it's quite another to get in your car and make that same trek when you're in your eighties and suffer from glaucoma. You're not only risking your own safety, but the safety of other drivers as well. During the 1950s, when the nation's interstate and suburb systems were designed, the average life expectancy was around 68 years old. The current rate tacks on an additional ten years, and future generations may live even longer. Viable transportation options are needed to allow seniors to keep their freedom without sacrificing their (or others') safety, especially when you consider that after age 85, driver fatality rates are nearly four times higher than that of teens.

I live in a pretty eclectic neighborhood, where there's a good mix between young and old, and I joke about how every driver is frustrated when getting around the neighborhood - the young drivers think the old drivers drive too slow, and the old drivers think the young drivers need to slow down. And, while it's easy to jest about how slow grandpa drives, it's a lot harder to tell him that he can no longer drive. Especially when his neighborhood is paved with roads and driving is the only way he knows how to get around town.

So, what's the solution? Public transportation and walkable communities are a good place to start. Mix-use development, where the grocery store is a part of a neighborhood instead of placed on the outskirts of a sub-division is also a viable option.

Either way, with the aging population reaching its peak soon, we'll eventually have to have a conversation about when people should give up their car keys.

Walk this Way - Designing Communities For the Elderly

This past Saturday afternoon found me waiting at a stop sign at the end of my street for a bit longer than I would have liked. I was attempting to make a left hand turn onto a busy road, but I wasn't the only one waiting to get to my destination. Across the street to my right, an elderly lady, having just finished a grocery store run, was waiting to cross the same busy street at a pedestrian crosswalk.

Cars were flying by in both directions, and she was patiently waiting until the roadway was clear. Unfortunately, she was waiting longer than me; I made my left turn and continued down the street as her reflection got smaller and smaller in my rear-view mirror.

This got me to thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. But, having had a grandfather live his last days in a cold nursing home and with my grandmother currently living with my parents, I began to wonder if there's not a better way to create communities for the elderly--one which doesn't involve playing a deathly game of Frogger just to get a gallon of milk.

Senior living centers are certainly one way to avoid dodging Dodges, but is there a better way to make the neighborhoods and communities easier to navigate for those not used to the fast-paced, breakneck speeds of our modern society?

Comfortable and Easy

I certainly hope so, and not just for my own future: beginning next year, the population of those 65 and older will continue to grow faster than the total population of each state, and, within a mere twenty years, may overtake all other age demographics across the country.

Realty Times has an article today that discusses what kind of homes aging baby boomers want (hint: comfortable and easy). Shouldn't they also want a neighborhood to match?

"I Wish They'd Bring Back the Streetcars"

I too walk to the same grocery store as my elderly neighbor and I too have been subject to waiting and waiting and waiting while at the same crosswalk. Once, when standing next to her, I mentioned how annoying it was having to dodge traffic just to get a loaf of bread.

"I wish they'd bring back the streetcars," was what she told me, herself obviously annoyed too at what used to be a very walkable neighborhood. Luckily, more and more cities are looking into bringing streetcars back, including Cincinnati.

And I hope it happens. After all, when I'm 80 years old, I don't want to have to worry about getting hit by a flying car. I'll have enough to worry about as it is.

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