2025: A Lot of Old People on the Roads

Joseph F. Coughlin is the founder and director of the AgeLab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and leads the New England University Transportation Center. He is co-editor, with Lisa D’Ambrosio, of the forthcoming book "Aging America and Transportation."

A baby boomer turns 64 one every seven seconds. In between the retirement bookends of health and financial security is transportation – because if you can’t get to the big and little things that make up life, even health and money don’t matter.

Our forthcoming book suggests a coming mobility gap. More than 80 percent of planning organizations responsible for tomorrow’s transportation system believe that “despite best efforts, most older baby boomers will have to rely on their own car or the cars of family and friends, to meet their transportation needs." Given this assessment, how does the United States ensure that there is a robust transportation system to support the mobility lifestyles of older Americans tomorrow?

Push the car. Intelligent technology is entering the car at an unprecedented rate, promising to safely extend driver longevity. Onboard computers warn of possible collisions, compensate for declining vision, and enable active safety systems to take control reducing the impact of a crash. Beyond these innovations is a vision of the driverless car, autonomous of human control and error. But, before smart technology can be seen as an solution, drivers of all ages will need to be educated on how to drive and trust a car that is increasingly in control and how to operate on a roadway that may accommodate both human and robotic drivers.
elderly driverNathan Fried-Lipsky; New England University Transportation Center The M.I.T. AgeLab AwareCar measures and monitors the physiological functions of driving.

Rethink public transportation. Driving may not remain a lifelong option for everyone. Nearly 70 percent of 50-plus Americans live in suburban and rural areas where transit does not serve or serve well. Today’s transit is about getting to work. Yet, the majority of trips, at any age, are about more than work -- going to the store, visiting a grandchild, or enjoying an ice cream cone. Creatively using technology to rethink public transportation, as a network of vehicles not a network of routes, will ensure that tomorrow’s transit provides access where people live and the flexibility to provide life trips not just work trips.

Build age-ready communities. For 60 years communities have adapted to meet the changing needs of the baby boomers. Many suburban communities offer privacy and quiet – often desired values in middle age – but in later life these qualities may also offer isolation. Even planned retirement developments may not offer accessibility and mobility. An M.I.T. AgeLab study assessing the age-readiness of retirement communities in Massachusetts showed that, while many provide bucolic beauty, they may be as, or even more, automobile dependent than many suburban neighborhoods. At least half of the retirement housing locations were beyond public transportation while many others lacked easy access to any type of activity beyond the community’s borders.

Where planned communities do not guarantee age-readiness, "naturally occurring retirement communities" have evolved in city neighborhoods where transit-oriented amenities have emerged to support quality aging. Somewhere between planning and luck is the Boston-based Beacon Hill Village. The visionary concept has launched a global "village movement" where neighbors form a cooperative network of services, including transportation, to enable residents to age in place in the comfort of their own homes. The next decade will challenge policy makers and developers alike to invent new ways to redesign communities that are accessible to services, stores and entertainment by foot or bike – enabling successful aging-in-place rather than the possibility of aging-in-no-place.

Transportation innovation takes years to implement. Government, business and individuals have a choice: work fast to build a safe responsive transportation system for tomorrow’s older adults or invest in comfortable chairs. In the time it took to read this commentary another 40 baby boomers celebrated their 64th birthday….tick tock.