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

[CHRISTINE WILLIS]

In response to Mike Dahmus:

I have recently read that there are discussions happening now about changing 
the laws that allow seniors to continually be able to renew their drivers 
licenses with rigorous testing to make sure their faculties are still 
intact.  I think this is due to several recent news stories of seniors 
getting into accidents where other drivers and pedestrians were killed.  
This seems like the opportune time to suggest that alternatives be made 
available to seniors who willingly give up driving or who are forced to give 
it up:  more senior housing in city centers, better pedestrian facilities 
for walking, biking, scooter riding.  I'm far from naive ... but I am 
definitely optimistic.

>From: Mike Dahmus <mdahmus>
>To: dick ryan <dicryan>
>CC: CHRISTINE WILLIS 
><chriwill>,forum-bicycleaustin.info
>Subject: Re: BIKE: NYTimes.com Article: The Path to a Healthier America
>Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 10:49:14 -0600
>
>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

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