In a blog post last Thursday, Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s Tanya Snyder tackled a question that has been marinating since Transportation for America released “Aging in Place, Stuck without Options,” addressing seniors’ mobility challenges:

Is it the job of overextended transit agencies – and the responsibility of taxpayers – to expand transit to all the inefficient places people have moved to, when they knowingly were moving away from urban amenities like transit in favor of the automobile? When that arrangement no longer works for people, do we encourage them to relocate in places that can better serve their needs, or do we aim to serve everyone’s needs exactly where they are, no matter where they are?

These are good questions, but there are some underlying assumptions that deserve a closer look. First, lets be fair: Automobile-dependent development has been the default setting for at least 60 years, so many people live in such places whether or not they “knowingly” rejected urban amenities and transit. And while it might make sense for some share of seniors to relocate, there simply isn’t enough adequate housing in close proximity to transit to accommodate the surging elder population — even if we could pry them away from support networks in their existing communities.

We don’t pretend for a minute that every cul-de-sac subdivision is entitled to its own transit route. But there are myriad ways that we could help to make the situation better, whether by broadening existing transit networks, expanding the supply of appropriate housing with access to transit or supporting educational programs that help to prepare seniors for getting around without driving.

In many inner suburbs, we have a ripe opportunity to change the dynamic. Many suburban communities are getting denser and more city-like in character, with dynamic job growth and greater proximity between employment and residential areas — Northern Virginia fits this description, for example. Under these circumstances, it not only makes sense to provide increased transportation options, but would be foolish not to. Both seniors and non-seniors deserve the chance to live in places with convenient and affordable access to transit if they choose.

Bottom line, there is plenty of low-hanging fruit. And T4’s report recommendations are incremental and achievable rather than pie-in-the-sky. We can start by preserving and expanding support for existing transportation systems, investing in programs like paratransit and ridesharing and continuing to allow state officials to “flex” a portion of their highways funds for other travel options. And, we can provide the funding and incentives for non-profit organizations and local communities to operate their own services in ways that make sense for them.

These are all ideas that Congress ought to consider as members deliberate over the next transportation bill.

Our recommendations are informed by the way things are, not how some might wish for them to be. That ought to resonate with those on the right wary of too much change too fast. Seniors are already aging in place, and we need to be prepared for it. But by creating more options in more communities today, we’ll have a better handle on helping the next generation move around, too. And that makes it all the more important to get this right.

The Wednesday hearing of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development comes on the heels of T4 America’s recent finding that 15.5 million older Americans will live in communities with poor or non-existent public transit by 2015. Aging in Place, Stuck without Options, was covered in dozens of states and generated widespread discussion.

The chairman of Senate Banking, South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson, has already shone a spotlight on senior transit needs, particularly in sparser communities like those in his home state. The subcommittee is chaired by New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, who has consistently championed transportation options and investment in mass transit.

According to an E&E report on the hearing, Corless will be joined by Lee Hammond, president of AARP, Steve Fittante, executive director of Middlesex County Area Transit in Menendez’s hometstate of New Jersey and Mary Leavy, assistant vice president of the Easter Seals Transportation Group.

The top Republican on the Subcommittee, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, invited Cato Institute fellow Randal O’Toole, who has made his views on senior transit access abundantly clear: “so what?” As Jason Plautz reported in E&E this morning:

O’Toole published a blog post questioning the report, noting data from the American Public Transportation Association that found that 6.7 percent of transit trips are taken by seniors.

“Those baby boomers who prefer transit over driving can do what everyone else does who prefers one set of services over another: locate to where the services they prefer are the greatest. In the case of transit riders, that generally means dense central cities,” O’Toole said, accusing Transportation for America of being “largely a shill for the transit industry.”

You can read T4′s response to O’Toole here.

The hearing will commence Wednesday, June 29 at 2pm in Room 548 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. We’ll have a wrap on the hearing here.

The report ranked metro areas according to the percentage of seniors projected to face poor transit access, and asked: How do we address the shrinking mobility options of baby boomers who wish to stay in their homes and “age in place?” What happens when people in the largest generation in American history outlive their ability to drive for everything?

The discussions we saw in the comments of blog posts and newspaper articles were very interesting. It’s an immediately relatable story, because almost everyone has a parent or grandparent currently dealing with or facing the prospect of getting older and staying mobile.

Accommodating seniors who want to age in place  — most of them do — will be a challenge for our nation’s transportation system. But there is a lot that we can do. We can increase funding for bus routes, paratransit, vanpools and ridesharing. We can provide incentives for community non-profits to operate their own systems. We can encourage states to involve seniors more intimately in the planning process and ensure officials are still able to “flex” federal dollars for transit projects. We can also prioritize “complete streets” that meet the needs of all users, including older Americans on foot, in wheelchairs or on their way to a transit stop.

All of these ideas can — and should — be folded into the next transportation bill currently being drafted in Congress.

The report generated widespread coverage and discussion. In response to the report’s findings, the San Francisco Bay Area gave itself a pat on the back for its top rank, with the San Francisco Chronicle referring to the region as “a good place to retire the car keys,” while the Kansas City Star reacted to its region’s poor ranking. The Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money offered a nice summation of the report’s overall findings.

Some argued that our recommendation to meet seniors where they are is backwards. Rather than extending transit out, they said, we ought to encourage older adults to move to places that already have robust transportation systems. Tanya Snyder surveyed both sides of the debate, which also played out in the comments section and on Twitter, at Streetsblog Capitol Hill:

Those recommendations might help geographically isolated seniors reach services, but is it really the responsibility of the taxpayer to subsidize the decisions people have made to live in places that explicitly reject transit accessibility? Should those inefficient, low-density, sprawling areas be retrofitted with transit now that their populations are aging?

Cristina Martin Firvida, who works on these issues for AARP, said helping seniors marooned in those areas helps everybody. And besides, the suburbs were built through federal policies encouraging outward development after the second world war, she said – it’s not just that one person built a house on top of a mountain and then demanded that taxpayer-subsidized transit come to them. “The suburbs is where our economy and our entire society has moved to since the fifties,” Firvida said.

No one took more umbrage with our report and conclusions than the Cato Institute’s Randal O’Toole, whose response to the growing mobility needs of America’s seniors was a glib: “So what?” While O’Toole is dismissive of the desire for greater options, AARP’s research found that public transportation use among older Americans increased by 40 percent since 2001 (see graphic below). And this is despite the fact that many live in areas with spotty and less-than-reliable service to begin with. T4′s David Goldberg responded to O’Toole last week.

You can still check out the full report and see how your area ranked here.

It is ironic to hear Randal O’Toole – who is largely a shill for the highway lobby and its pet subsidies – refer to Transportation for America as “ largely a shill for the transit industry.”

The T4America coalition is alarming to people like O’Toole because it is an unusual player in the battles over the federal transportation program: It is expressly not an industry group. Rather, it represents millions of Americans who rely on our nation’s transportation infrastructure and who want to see it preserved and expanded in ways that meet the needs of a changing nation.

The folks at AARP, who co-released the Aging in Place, Stuck without Options report with us, are hardly spokespeople for those who make and operate trains and buses. They represent the interests of Americans as we age. They actually talk to seniors to find out their problems and what they need. What they’ve learned is that people want to live in the communities where they have built social and other support networks. And like the rest of America, the vast majority live in suburbs.

But those suburbs were built with the assumption that everyone would drive for everything, regardless of their health, age, physical condition or budget. That presents a national problem when our largest ever generation, with the longest life expectancies ever, faces a future of diminished capacity for driving.

Presented with the fact of this phenomenon and its implications, O’Toole responds, “So what?” [Lets hope for his sake that his eyesight, reflexes, hearing, joints and pension never give out, or that he has plenty of kids who have nothing better to do than shuttle him around in his dotage.] O’Toole makes a big point of saying that not a lot of seniors take transit today. But that’s perfectly in line with our findings: Most live where transit service is poor or non-existent. In places that do have transit, the number of seniors taking transit is, in fact, rising, and that is accelerating as gas prices rise.

And now for O’Toole’s patent untruth:

Transportation for America wants transit agencies to extend frequent bus or rail service to every remote suburb where there might be a few people over 65.

We never said any such thing, because we don’t believe any such thing. We believe there are as many solutions as there are communities. Some inner suburbs might decide to extend an existing transit system from the urban core into their area. Some exurbs might create a call center for dial-a-ride or ride-sharing services. Some communities with an existing public transportation network might encourage senior-friendly housing in walkable neighborhoods near transit stops. That would allow people to stay in their communities, but in homes and neighborhoods where they can remain active and independent.

It is clear that cash-strapped states and localities can’t do what they need to do in the coming years without federal support. The upcoming transportation bill will allocate how our existing tax dollars are spent. We can keep spending on 1950s-era highway schemes and Bridges to Nowhere, or we can face reality and recognize the fact of aging, both of our existing infrastructure and our population, and dedicate federal support accordingly.

Photo courtesy of Wichita Liberty.

Atlanta, GA tops the rankings for large metro areas with poor access to transit for seniors

By 2015, more than 15.5 million Americans 65 and older will live in communities where public transportation service is poor or non-existent, a new study shows. That number is expected to continue to grow rapidly as the baby boom generation “ages in place” in suburbs and exurbs with few mobility options for those who do not drive.

The report, Aging in Place, Stuck without Options, ranks metro areas by the percentage of seniors with poor access to public transportation, now and in the coming years, and presents other data on aging and transportation.

The analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology evaluates metro areas within each of five size categories. It shows that in just four years, 90 percent of seniors in metro Atlanta will live in neighborhoods with poor access to options other than driving, the worst ranking among metro areas with populations over 3 million. In that size category, metro Atlanta is followed by the Riverside-San Bernardino, CA metro area, along with Houston, Detroit and Dallas.

Kansas City tops the list for metros of 1-3 million, followed by Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham. In smaller areas like Hamilton, OH, 100 percent of seniors will have poor access to public transportation. These conditions present a daunting challenge to local communities as a larger share of their population demands increased mobility options.

“The baby boom generation grew up and reared their own children in communities that, for the first time in human history, were built on the assumption that everyone would be able to drive an automobile,” said John Robert Smith, president and CEO of Reconnecting America and co-chair of Transportation for America. “What happens when people in this largest generation ever, with the longest predicted lifespan ever, outlive their ability to drive for everything? That’s one of the questions we set out to answer in this report.”

“The vast majority of people age 50-plus want to stay in their homes for as long as possible, according to our research,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. “When they do move, they most often want to stay in their communities.”

Indeed, such a small percentage of older American actually relocate that researchers already are seeing the emergence of so-called “naturally occurring retirement communities.” That phenomenon is growing as baby boomers begin to turn 65. Today, about four in five seniors age 65 and older live in suburban or rural communities that are largely car-dependent.

“Communities like Atlanta have an enormous challenge before us, but it’s also an opportunity,” said Cathie Berger, division chief of the Area Agency on Aging in Atlanta. “It’s true that many of our suburban neighborhoods were built without considering the needs of an aging population. But many of the steps we could take to fix that – improving public transportation service, retrofitting our streets to be safer for walking – will improve quality of life for the entire community.”

Without access to affordable travel options, seniors age 65 and older who no longer drive make 15 percent fewer trips to the doctor, 59 percent fewer trips to shop or eat out and 65 percent fewer trips to visit friends and family, than drivers of the same age, research shows. As the cost of owning and fueling a vehicle rises, many older Americans who can still drive nonetheless will be looking for lower-cost options.

The transportation issues of an aging America are national in scope, and cash-strapped state and local governments will be looking for federal support in meeting their needs, Smith said. As Congress prepares this summer to adopt a new, long-term transportation authorization, Aging in Place, Stuck without Options outlines policies to help ensure that older Americans can remain mobile, active and independent:

• Increase funding support for communities looking to improve service such as buses, trains, vanpools, paratransit and ridesharing;
• Provide funding and incentives for transit operators, nonprofit organizations, and local communities to engage in innovative practices;
• Encourage state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, and transit operators to involve seniors and the community stakeholders in developing plans for meeting the mobility needs of older adults;
• Ensure that state departments of transportation retain their authority to “flex” a portion of highway funds for transit projects and programs;
• Include a “complete streets” policy to ensure that streets and intersections around transit stops are safe and inviting for seniors.

To view the full report and to see the extended rankings, please visit http://t4america.org/resources/seniorsmobilitycrisis2011/

The number of seniors in the U.S. is projected to jump by 36 percent from 2010, outpacing the growth of the overall population by 300 percent. An increase in immigrations will help make the United States a minority-majority country by 2042, with more than 62 percent of children in the U.S. projected to be a member of a minority group by 2050.

To help us look at how these changes will impact our transportation needs, a group of organizations — including Transportation for America, AARP, Association of Population Centers, Population Association of America, Population Resource Center — held a briefing on Capitol Hill Monday entitled Getting Around in 21st Century America: Demographics and the Future of Transportation Policy.

Geoff Anderson of Smart Growth America and Transportation for America, Peter Morrison of the Rand Corporation, and Professor Leobardo Estrada of UCLA’s urban planning department all spoke at the event, laying out in simple terms why our country needs to reform its transportation system, provide people with safer and better options, and help create accessible communities that do not require the use of a car to lead a healthy, satisfying life.

A large portion of immigrants of working age living in the United States do not own a personal automobile — often using public transportation or carpooling to get to work — and need adequate transportation options to contribute to our national economy and carve out their piece of the American dream.

For older Americans, this issue is even more important. As we’ve discussed before, Americans face numerous transportation challenges as they age, from losing the ability to drive in a car-dependent culture, to unsafe or simply non-existent sidewalks, to unavailable or inaccessible public transportation that often keeps people stuck at home. These issues are particularly important in rural and suburban areas, where many immigrants are now moving, and many Baby Boomer Americans plan to age in place

While recent shifts in policy — including a national push towards complete streets and a recognition of the linkage between housing and transportation — are important steps to help keep our changing population mobile, safe, and productive, we need to do a whole lot more. Check out the T4 Blueprint to find some of our specific policies aimed at addressing these issues, and be sure to sign our petition urging Congress to create an accountable, 21st century transportation system.

You might remember the headlines as the United States passed the 300 million mark in population just a few years ago. Sounds hard to believe, but we will reach the 400 million mark in population somewhere between 30 and 40 years from now. But did you know how much older America will be then? Nearly 1 in 5 Americans are expected to be over age 65 by the year 2030.

With our country becoming older, it is imperative that we think about transportation investments that will serve all Americans — not just the young or mobile.

Transportation for America is proud to announce that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has joined the campaign as a partner, bringing their 40 million members into the fold, joining us to push for reforms to our federal transportation program. From their press release:

“AARP is delighted to join T4America, the Transportation for America Campaign, an impressive group of organizations, elected officials and businesses with the shared goal of building a modernized infrastructure to support livable communities where people can live, work and play. America is aging rapidly and transportation policy and spending must acknowledge this demographic shift. The upcoming transportation authorization can help the nation prepare both for its graying years and a greener future by making roads safer for drivers of all ages and also offering more user friendly options for pedestrians and transit users.

It’s worth noting that AARP is not all about retiring seniors. Around half of their 40 million members are still working.

Empty-nesters are growing in numbers, and more of them are seeking out places where they can live without driving constantly, while still having good access to culture and amenities.

And today, 1 in 5 Americans over age 65 either choose not to drive, or are unable to drive. 600,000 people over age 70 stop driving every year. 50 years ago, this perhaps wasn’t quite the barrier it is today because seniors lived in places where life as they know it did not have to end the moment they stopped driving.

With many retirees and seniors living in our auto-dependent suburbs of the last 50 years, how are they going to stay mobile and get where they need to go?

It is a big issue for AARP. They wrote a letter to Congressional leaders on behalf of their 40 million members last week asking Congress to draft a 2010 budget that can “promote livable communities” through smarter transportation spending, with a special call to support the Complete Streets legislation currently in the House and Senate.

It has become clear that our nation can no longer rely solely on gasoline taxes to fund both needed repairs to our aging highways and bridges while providing for expanded and more energy-efficient mobility options. Regardless of the approach Congress selects to fund future transportation spending, we urge that significant funds be targeted to expand our nation’s public transportation systems, expand paratransit programs and services for special needs and rural populations, and promote use of safety design features that can make our roads and intersections safer for drivers and pedestrians. We also urge the adoption of Complete Streets policies to make our streets safe and convenient for users of all ages and abilities regardless of mode of travel.

We welcome AARP to the coalition as we work together to create a 21st Century transportation system for all Americans.

Resources:

• Read their press release
• Read their letter to Congress (3.1 mb pdf)
• Tell Congress to support Complete Streets Legislation