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Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

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Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#181

Post by mysterypie »

Cd00d wrote: post #172
blondie9x wrote: post #147

Cars are exploitation. Driving isn't freedom it's the most dangerous and isolating way to move people that exists. The automobile companies have trapped us into debt and traffic laden commutes that waste hours of our short lives on this planet and cause roughly 30% of climate change. Do something. Get rid of your car and push for better mass transportation and development near train stations and major urban areas. Ca…

That's extreme. I have a car in NYC. The subway system here is amazing, while also being an embarrassment. But, the car provides the freedom to visit friends and family for a day or weekend. The cost is $200 per month parking and $150 per month insurance, plus the cost of the car, which is relatively low as we drive less than 500 miles per month. We can visit family in 45 minutes or 2 hours (depending on destination)…

The flexibility of having a car is undeniable. However, pretty much everyone--including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Reports, and the American Automobile Association--agrees that the total cost of ownership runs to US$8000-$9000 per year for the average person. The cost might be a lot lower for you, but most people are paying a lot of money for having a car at their disposal without realizing how much they're spending.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#182

Post by dundercoder »

souprock wrote: post #142
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

If you’re referring to me being more of a target, my experience has been the opposite. I have found that I’m generally given a very wide berth when I have my white cane out. Often people hold doors for me too. I have a suspicion that most would-be criminals have a concept of karma and fear that robbing a blind person would bring lots of extra bad luck to their table.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#183

Post by [deleted] »

dundercoder wrote: post #182
souprock wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

If you’re referring to me being more of a target, my experience has been the opposite. I have found that I’m generally given a very wide berth when I have my white cane out. Often people hold doors for me too. I have a suspicion that most would-be criminals have a concept of karma and fear that robbing a blind person would bring lots of extra bad luck to their table.

[deleted]

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#184

Post by burfog »

mysterypie wrote: post #181
Cd00d wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's extreme. I have a car in NYC. The subway system here is amazing, while also being an embarrassment. But, the car provides the freedom to visit friends and family for a day or weekend. The cost is $200 per month parking and $150 per month insurance, plus the cost of the car, which is relatively low as we drive less than 500 miles per month. We can visit family in 45 minutes or 2 hours (depending on destination)…

The flexibility of having a car is undeniable. However, pretty much everyone--including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Reports, and the American Automobile Association--agrees that the total cost of ownership runs to US$8000-$9000 per year for the average person. The cost might be a lot lower for you, but most people are paying a lot of money for having a car at their disposal without realizing how muc…

Time is money.

He is saving about 5 hours each round trip. If his time is worth $50/hour, then $8000 for car ownership gets him 32 trips. Add a few more to account for the cost of rail ticket prices.

He breaks even if he takes that trip about 3 times per month and never finds any other use for a car.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#185

Post by alkonaut »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #3
alkonaut wrote: post #2

Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home. It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

Out of curiosity do you mind sharing the location?

Sweden

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#186

Post by dundercoder »

virmundi wrote: post #114
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

Out of curiosity, why give up your license? It's a great ID. You don't have to use it. I know plenty of people with licenses to carry concealed, but don't. To you point about car dependence, not using one is humiliating, at least for me. I live about .25 miles from my office. I walk daily to and from (twice). I feel, and have seen, people look at me like I'm poor. It is a foreign concept to many that walking or bikin…

Pragmatism aside, surrendering my license was a significant step in the grieving process for me. I was warned by a vision counselor that losing sight would be like losing a loved one. So far that has been my experience.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#187

Post by hrktb »

Cd00d wrote: post #172
blondie9x wrote: post #147

Cars are exploitation. Driving isn't freedom it's the most dangerous and isolating way to move people that exists. The automobile companies have trapped us into debt and traffic laden commutes that waste hours of our short lives on this planet and cause roughly 30% of climate change. Do something. Get rid of your car and push for better mass transportation and development near train stations and major urban areas. Ca…

That's extreme. I have a car in NYC. The subway system here is amazing, while also being an embarrassment. But, the car provides the freedom to visit friends and family for a day or weekend. The cost is $200 per month parking and $150 per month insurance, plus the cost of the car, which is relatively low as we drive less than 500 miles per month. We can visit family in 45 minutes or 2 hours (depending on destination)…

You seem to be arguing for convenience, more than freedom per se.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#188

Post by dundercoder »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #136
dundercoder wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a good point.

Thank you dundercoder for sharing your experiences, would be very interested in the adaptations you made to your working environment as your eyesight failed. It also got me thinking about my own locale, and I would agree with volkl48. I live in Walla Walla, WA now, which has three colleges and a very walkable downtown. Sounds like you have kids, and we have reasonable public schools. It's a 45 minute flight to Seattl…

I still have some central vision, maybe 20 degrees field of view, so I can still see my laptop screen ok. I had to ditch my two 27” monitors because I’d get vertigo looking between them (usually hunting for the mouse pointer)

I crank up the text size so large my neighbors can read it, but not so big that it exceeds my visual field.

I use a screen reader to read docs. I’m super excited about the new AI powered narrators because listening to ANY of the older style readers for 30 seconds or more causes permanent rage conditions.

I tried Braille, but it’s like trying to be instantly productive using vim, in Chinese, while on the space shuttle during launch. I might return to it sometime because narrated code is horrible to listen to.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#189

Post by burfog »

wahern wrote: post #169
_m8fo wrote: post #8

I always get an inkling that buses (like Bolt/Mega/PeterPan) + the existing highway + roads are superior and more scalable than any other type of transportation, dollar for dollar. Why do people push for rail? Self-driving cars obviously can enhance this (the bus idea), but I suspect they will create even more traffic if we insist on having 5 passenger cars be 75% empty. Buses are great because demand can be realloca…

Like others say, buses are slow, but that misses the point of the article. Seniors can't or won't walk very far. While buses are more flexible than rail in this regard, neither work for seniors in suburbia. Suburbia is incompatible with mass transit. Seniors want to be able to board and alight within 2 or 3 blocks of their terminus, maximum. Until we get automated cars, the only way to achieve that economically is wi…

I have a grandmother in San Francisco. It only works OK for her because she has a daughter with a car. Taking public transportation isn't something she could seriously consider.

I think a lot of people here are imagining themselves as "seniors" without really picturing what that is like. It isn't just like being a 30-year-old male, but with wrinkles and free time.

Going up those hills is something the young take for granted. The elderly have painful joints, weak muscles, bad eyesight, slow reactions, and poor balance. I just try to imagine my grandmother going up a hill, maybe with a walker... and I mostly can't.

Invulnerability to crime is something that young males often take for granted. My grandmother would be such easy pickings. She can't run and she can't fight. She could very quietly scream after the crime had happened, but only if she doesn't fall down and get knocked out cold.

Many have poor control of core body temperature. They are in danger if the weather changes.

Many are not strong enough to carry very much. Typically you bring stuff with you when you go places. The point is often to go shopping, and of course you'd want to bring a purse. This is not something that everyone can reliably do.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#190

Post by burfog »

melling wrote: post #56
_m8fo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, sure. In practice, they don't go any faster a car is capable of [1] [1] https://ggwash.org/view/4524/average-schedule-speed-how-does...

You’re saying that a car on the highway is faster than a subway in midtown Manhattan? How fast can you drive a car in Manhattan? And you probably don’t realize this, but modern trains go about 200 mph. They just don’t go that fast in the United States. China managed to build about 18,000 miles of these trains in about 10 years.

Modern cars go about 200 mph as well. This happens in Germany.

So, that really doesn't favor the trains. Both trains and cars could theoretically they could go faster in the United States.

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