In Florida, Aging Population Struggles to Get Around

[marmar]

(Orlando, FL — WMFE) With more than three million residents over the age of 65, Florida’s population has the highest proportion of senior citizens of any state in the US. One challenge facing many of Florida’s seniors is how to get out and about once they can no longer drive.

In Orlando, some 300 seniors subscribe to the Independent Transportation Network private non-profit car service. Bea Chernok uses ITN a couple of times a week, for everything from doctors visits to social excursions.

“Last week, on a Sunday, they took me down to the Carr Auditorium, I saw an opera, they picked me up, and I wasn’t afraid,” she says.

Chernok says ordinarily she wouldn’t go out at night, but she feels safe with the ITN drivers, like John McCallister. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/05/01/in-florida-aging-population-struggles-to-get-around/

[Vogon_Glory]

1. If They Voted Republican, I Don't Have Much Sympathy

Last edited Mon May 7, 2012, 12:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't have much sympathy for many of these seniors if they've been voting Republican. They were voting for a party that is more than willing to turn them into shut-ins to serve its own narrow political agenda.

The Republicans' anti-transit bias is not a new trend. The first signs that the GOP's right wing had decided that mass transit was on a par with heathenism, socialism, and unflouridated water was back in the mid-1980s, not just due to the likes of Grover Norquist, but to other GOP politicos.

I think it's been exceedingly clear that the GOP's distaste for public transportation has turned into open hostility, and that that hostility has been highly visible even before Buckaroo Bush was awarded the White House in 2000. But those voters just. weren't. paying. attention.

Those seniors had better hope and pray that the GOP's anti-transit policy doesn't succeed as much as much as the Senile Elephant Party's controlling faction hopes it does. If they don't, they won't have to deal with today's less-than-adequate transit systems, instead they won't have a transit system. Period.

Furthermore, if the GOP succeeds in defunding public transit and forces systems to shut down coast to coast, those systems won't return very quickly. It takes several years to re-establish bus systems and to get those bus systems running properly. And if you're 65 years or older, those 65 years are several years into a senior's no-longer-lengthy life expectancy.

Do I sound cynical? Yes. Do I sound bitter? Yes. Do I think that many of those seniors voting Republican should have thought of their own interests instead of letting themselves get distracted by propaganda? Yes. Do I think that voters ought to look after their own long-term interests? You bet I do.