BIKE: NYTimes.com Article: The Path to a Healthier America

[Mike Dahmus]

dick ryan wrote:

> Good idea - I'm also a member of AARP, but unfortunately I qualify - 
> Older people also need to prepare for when they can no longer drive. 

For those of you who have, unlike myself, never had the pleasure of 
living in South Florida, allow me to congratulate you on your optimistic 
naivete.

The way it _really_ works is that the senior lobby fights tooth-and-nail 
against any attempt to sensibly regulate driving license renewal (to the 
point that, until recently, one could move to Florida at, say, age 70; 
pass a vision test; and not see the inside of an office until the age of 
88). They are not our allies; they never will be; they see driving as a 
right that must be defended no matter what the cost (and to whom it 
ultimately costs). They are reactionary on the subject to the point that 
you start to wonder how they (in many cases) ever lived most of their 
life in New York without a car.

My wife's grandmother (a Texan, not a New Yorker) lives in one of these 
suburban complexes on the far outskirts of Round Rock and drives down to 
her parents' in Tarrytown almost weekly. The small savings on the 
residential cost are probably outweighed by the additional 
transportation cost (and time), in my estimation; but unfortunately 
relatively few people see it that way.

Texas is in for a much bigger disaster than South Florida became, by the 
way. Even though it's contiguous suburban sprawl from Jupiter 120 miles 
south to Homestead, at least the senior citizen homes are somewhat 
concentrated within a few megaplexes which would at least run buses 
around some good destinations daily. The senior living I see around 
these parts, with the exception of Sun City, seem way too small to 
effectively get their residents to ride the bus instead of driving. When 
our demographics match that of 1990s Florida, it will be a bloodbath. I 
wish that was hyperbole.

The only hope is for inner city neighborhoods to swallow their reflexive 
opposition to density in all forms and be willing to host some 
large-scale senior apartment complexes. Guess how likely that is?

- MD