By 2030, seventy-two million people, or fully one of every five Americans, will be aged sixty-five or older, raising important concerns about how our cities, communities, and transportation facilities will safety accommodate their travel needs. The current policy solution is to increase driver testing, provide senior-oriented paratransit services, and ultimately, to house older, nondriving adults in senior care communities where more mobile individuals can provide basic household-related services for them. These practices, while perhaps well intentioned, effectively segregate older adults from the larger community. We can do better. This article summarizes the available literature on the travel-related needs, abilities, and preferences of older adults. Through a synthesis of the current knowledge, it identifies four strategies that can be used to design communities and transportation systems to address the safety and mobility needs of an aging population in an inclusive, universal manner. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting