Senior Mobility

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A crucial part of modern life is transportation. People of all ages in all parts of the country rely on some form of transportation on a day to day basis. Some drive cars, take public transportation ride bikes, walk, take cabs or ride share services. But as people age their options become more limited. Senior citizens might not be able to drive anymore because of vision or reaction time, there might not be a bus stop that is within a reachable distance for them to get to, their closest subway stop or light rail station might be not be updated to modern ADA standards, the list of limitations goes on and on. So for many senior citizens a having someone else drive them is their only or safest option. Yet cabs and ride share services like uber or lyft cost money that someone on a fixed income might not be able to afford when making regular visits to the doctor or to run errands. For these people losing their ability to drive leads to 15 percent fewer trips to the doctor and 65 percent fewer trips for social, family, and religious outings according to a 2004 study. To counterbalance this increasing number of people who aren't able to transport themselves many communities have implemented programs that help make up for this. These services provide door to door and door through door services, as well as sometimes providing an escort to stay with the rider to assist while they are at their destination. Here in Portland one of the places that provides these transportation services is the Northwest Pilot Project. Their team, made up of 192 individuals, 11 faith based groups, 2 schools and 5 non profit organizations, logged 7,645 volunteer hours in 2016-2017. These volunteers helped get 1,700 seniors to their medical appointments, go shopping, and business appointments. It's important that as the number of seniors continues to grow in portland and across the country, programs like NWPP and others like it across the country that provide these essential transportation services continue to receive funding, government support and volunteer support.





Reference articles:


https://www.nwpilotproject.org/images/Impact%20report.pdf


https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/07mar/03.cfm





https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/10janfeb/03.cfm

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