With few transit options, seniors at risk of being stuck at home, study says

[marmar]

With few transit options, seniors at risk of being stuck at home, study says

By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 06/14/2011 02:45:00 PM PDT
Updated: 06/14/2011 05:50:12 PM PDT


Older Americans are at risk of being stuck in isolation at home as baby boomers continue to "age in place" in suburbs with limited public transit, according to a report issued Tuesday by a national transportation coalition.

More than 15.5 million people 65 or older will live in communities with poor or no public transit by 2015, Transportation for America estimated in its study, which ranked areas on their public transit access for seniors.

The Bay Area ranked highest in the nation for public transit, but even this region is not immune from mobility problems for seniors, according to the report titled "Aging in Place, Stuck Without Options."

An estimated 135,000 Bay Area seniors will live in places with little or no access to public transit by 2015, a 38 percent increase from 2000, the report said. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.mercurynews.com/census/ci_18271960?nclick_check=1

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pnwmom]

2. There are plenty of Democrats among baby boomer seniors.

Hope you're planning to help drive them to the polls.

[madinmaryland]

4. That's quite a broadbrush on senior citizens.

:wow:

[liberal N proud]

3. The way this country is treating our seniors is really sad

We just push them off and try to forget about them.

We forget that we will, hopefully, be old one day too. But then those who are making this home imprisonment of the elderly possible don't have to worry as they will just buy what ever services they need.

[applegrove]

5. I like what they do in vancouver. The paratranspo buses also transport

outdoorsy types with their bicycles. It is a nice juxtaposition with seniors and younguns mixed up together.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. That's why I can't understand why so many senior residences are way out in the burbs

I would NEVER move into a place like that. My great-grandparents were placed in one of the early outer suburban senior residences in the 1960s, and it nearly drove my great-grandmother nuts, because one of her greatest joys was to go downtown, shop a little, have lunch, and maybe take in a movie. She couldn't do that anymore, and the complex didn't even have an activity bus.

Even though I'm not yet a senior, I always choose to live on a bus/transit line and within walking distance of essential stores and services.

You'd have to drug and kidnap me to make me live in the burbs. As one who works at home, I NEED places to go in the middle of the day.

[Igel]

7. A lot of them don't start out that way.

My parents lived a couple of miles from work. Suburbs, I guess, but near work.

They retired 2500 miles away, with the nearest grocery store 2 miles in one direction. Everything else was farther away. Nice house, good neighborhood, quiet, clean, everything my mother wanted. Their old house was 1300 sq ft, where they raised two kids. Their new house, just for the two of them, was 2200 sq ft. Before they walled in the back porch. Not raised in a city, never having lived near downtown, they really disliked driving in the city or even being in the city and were happy as punch in the suburbs. I'm the same way. All the people crowded together bring to mind the experiments with mice and overcrowding--it's just me and 2 000 000 of my closest friends, most of whom would only care if I died in front of them because they'd have to break their stride to step over me.

It was 13 years later that my mother's dementia became a problem. Her neighborhood is mixed use, so there aren't special services just for her subgroup of the population. She's a problem there, now, and will eventually have to be moved out. She's in her mid-80s now. To be honest, when my parents were 81 I was concerned about when they'd drive 20 or 30 miles for dinner, then drive home. I think the nearest bus stops more than 1/2 mile from her house. It's Arizona, summer temps in the 110s.

The idea that they'd become old and feeble never crossed their mind. They therefore didn't plan for it. Not that they'd have liked being in a city. But there are "retirement communities" that at least provide some services.

My mother doesn't live far from a retirement city. No schools there, no kids allowed to live in the city limits. All retirees, they spend their property taxes on support services for the elderly.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. You don't even have to be in the city

A small town with a little business district close by will do the trick.

By the way, my city neighborhood looks like an old-fashioned Midwestern small town, due to the age of the houses, the big trees, the little business district, and being somewhat hemmed in by two lakes.