Leroy Steinke, who is 87 years old, used to drive his wife and a neighbor to doctors’ appointments and other errands on the North Side of Chicago. Then Steinke’s health declined, and he knew they would all need to find another way to get around.
That’s why Steinke was relieved to hear that Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign a measure making it easier for volunteer drivers to come in and take the elderly where they need to go without having to spend more of their own money on car insurance.
“We desperately need this,” says Steinke, who is active with Independent Transportation Network of America (ITN America), a national organization that tries different ways to help older people with their transportation needs at a time of dwindling state and city funds and growing demand.
States this year have cut various programs that serve the elderly, but the approaches ITN uses don’t depend on state money. They recruit a roster of drivers large enough to guarantee seniors rides 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The services delivered through ITN aren’t completely free to the passengers, but they don’t compete with public transportation for scarce taxpayer dollars either.
Click to view infographic on aging boomers in a new window.
Growing demand
The aging Baby Boomer generation is one reason states are paying attention to programs like ITN. The number of Americans age 65 and older is expected to increase to more than 55 million by 2020. For many of these people, public transportation will not really be an option. Four years from now, according to a new report from Transportation for America, a group that advocates improved mobility, more than 15.5 million senior citizens will live in communities where public transportation service is poor or non-existent. Even seniors who live in cities with extensive subways and bus systems may have difficulty using them if, like Steinke, they walk with a cane and carry an oxygen tank.
“The changes that make it difficult for older people to drive safely also make it difficult for them to use traditional mass transit,” says Katherine Freund, who founded ITNAmerica in 1995. She says that about 90 percent of all trips taken by people over 65 are in a car.