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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

#141

Post by SirZimzim »

avs733 wrote: post #130
virmundi wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I, and several of my friends when I used to live in Phoenix, were big walkers. Its evening? go for a walk around the neighborhood. Walk to work, even though it was like 1.5 miles...just...walk. Each of us were stopped at least once by police for being suspicious...near as I can tell (we were all >middle class white people) all that was suspicious was us walking on sidewalks. Outside of the biggest cities America is a…

Doesn't help that drivers act incredibly entitled to the road and view pedestrians and bicycles as obstacles.

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

#142

Post by souprock »

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?

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

#143

Post by justhelpingout »

marnett wrote: post #139
virmundi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belief boosted community. Black churches, unified by a belief in the intrinsic value of humanity, got people to vote, to march, and to change. Whites, Asians, and others, unified by a common core belief pushed against the violence and racism of their day to improve the lots of their fellow man. At the forefront was not a scientist, not a technocrat, but a preacher, surrounded by preachers. At its zenith, as with all…

Do you have any more writing on this subject? I have been working on an essay discussing the lack of this philosophical backbone in our ideologies we build up - the new religion of the intellectual liberals of today (traditional dictionary definition of liberal, of course). I can feel a similar emotion in your writing.

See also _The Metaphysics of democracy_: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/02/the-metaphysics-...

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

#144

Post by t3rmi »

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?

Because he doesn't want to depend on someone to drive him around.

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

#145

Post by r00fus »

BigJono wrote: post #118
virmundi wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically churches and other community groups, including the Masons, would help in this regard. It appears as if this gone now. For example, black churches use to have get out the vote buses that helped people register. They would work with their paritioners and the large community to make sure that people could get to DMVs or wherever the locality required people to sign up. It appears like that is largely gone.…

I feel like there's a void to be filled here. Something that allows people to build a sense of community without all the make-believe crap.

Could be the "make believe crap" serves a useful function as social lubricant and adherence factor.

Perhaps have more obvious and better make believe (flying spaghetti monster)?

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

#146

Post by jdavis703 »

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?

Did you know that crime occurs on the roadways too? There is vehicular homicide, drive by shootings, auto burglary, and hit and runs. Being in a car does not magically protect you from crime.

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

#147

Post by blondie9x »

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.

Cars are pieces of metal to get us from A to B. Making them out to be something more than that is self deception. We deserve better.

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

#148

Post by lazyasciiart »

BigJono wrote: post #118
virmundi wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically churches and other community groups, including the Masons, would help in this regard. It appears as if this gone now. For example, black churches use to have get out the vote buses that helped people register. They would work with their paritioners and the large community to make sure that people could get to DMVs or wherever the locality required people to sign up. It appears like that is largely gone.…

I feel like there's a void to be filled here. Something that allows people to build a sense of community without all the make-believe crap.

I think that's what Universal Unitarianism is meant to be - I certainly know atheists who have joined one for the community and felt welcome.

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

#149

Post by sidyom »

lovich wrote: post #126
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sorry. Did I mention my grandmother is 96? Ninety-six? HN forgets that not everyone has coastal tech money a lot .

That is true, but periodic Ubers are also way cheaper than owning a car. If you only need to travel once a week it would likely be far cheaper than car taxes, gas, and maintenance

There are also a lot of old folks where Uber is not.

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

#150

Post by Johnny555 »

_m8fo wrote: post #34
Johnny555 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the traffic and the train -- during rush hour, a Caltrain express train from San Francisco to San Jose is almost always faster than driving. It can take 90 - 120 minutes to drive during commute hours (at 4:30pm, Google says 90 minutes), versus 65 minutes by train.

I don't disagree that a train is better in many situations. I'm more curious about situations where a city is prepared to make a 1B+ capital expenditure. For example boring a tunnel for a train vs. a dedicated bus lane on the highway + exit.

Is that dedicated lane cheaper? In many cities that are facing a traffic crunch, they've already made all of the "easy" road improvements -- for example, 101 in the SF Bay Area is pretty much all built in to the center median, so adding new lanes means adding outside lanes (which requires rebuilding every bridge and intersection).

It'd be cheaper, of course, to take an existing lane and convert it to a bus-only lane, but that's politically infeasible.

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