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Accessibility for Aging and Transportation-Disadvantaged Populations

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2. Background

The United States possesses one of the safest and most extensive passenger transportation systems in the world. Unfortunately, however, the system is unable to provide optimal mobility for selected and growing portions of the population. These segments include the elderly, the physically challenged, and the poor.

Today, 12 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or older. Estimates suggest that by the year 2020, 17 to 20 percent of the population-or approximately 50 million Americans-will be over 65. The fastest growing cohort will be those least likely to have easy access to an automobile-those 85 and older. Yet, the majority of older people today are drivers and, by 2010, nearly all will be licensed. Moreover, about 75 percent of older people now live in suburban or rural areas that are not well-served by public transit. Having come to depend on the level of mobility afforded by the automobile, many older Americans will have to rely on alternative transportation services once they are no longer able to drive.

Likewise, those young or old with physical disabilities have considerable mobility needs. More than 40 million Americans are disabled and many cannot drive or live in areas that are not served by transit. For these Americans, access to medical facilities, schools, training centers, workplaces, and social activities is critical to health and well being.

Finally, welfare reform will require about 830,000 recipients to find jobs. Due to welfare eligibility rules and high vehicle operating costs, most welfare recipients, and others with low incomes, do not own a car: only 6 percent of welfare families reported a car as an asset in 1995. Moreover, the "spatial mismatch" that often exists between the locations of jobs (about 70 percent of which are located in the suburbs) and the poor (80 percent of whom live in central cities or rural areas) exacerbates mobility problems. Previously tried transportation alternatives, such as employer- or publicly sponsored vanpools, attempted to provide transportation to service journey-to-work travel alone. Yet, 90 percent of the welfare recipients who will be required to work-and the heads of most poor families-are single mothers. Any effective mobility option must support trip-chaining patterns of working mothers, including work, child care, and other trips that are routine parts of managing a household.

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