National Agenda for the Transportation
Needs of an Aging Society
April 1, 1999
In January 1997, the Department of Transportation completed a year-long study of how the Nation's transportation system will accommodate the growing cohort of older adults--the 65-plus population will grow by over 50 percent between now and 2020. The results were embodied in a report entitled Improving Transportation for a Maturing Society. It indicated that while the present situation regarding the safety of older adults is not yet a matter of immediate concern, there could be a substantial problem in future years. Further, linked to the safety and health of older adults is the far broader problem of their transportation when they must give up driving. For planning purposes the report also proposed that the Department adopt the goal and slogan of: Safe Mobility For Life.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater has indicated the high priority he places on this issue, and his desire that the Department undertake additional initiatives to assure the continuing safe transportation for older adults. It is important that the Department take steps now to assure that these innovations will be fully in place as the "Baby Boom" generation begins to reach retirement age, in little more than a decade. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Transit Administration, and the Federal Highway Administration have numerous projects underway that will contribute to meeting the challenge of preparing the system to accommodate this rapidly growing segment of society, but far more needs to be done.
Transportation for an Aging Society - Initiatives Drawn from a Decade of Experience
There is a need to update the transportation research and development requirements for the elderly for the next 25 years. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) produced a report on Transportation for an Aging Society in 1988 that served as a guideline for much of the Nation's research on older adult transportation issues. Some of those findings are now being applied in the field. The research plan must be revised to reflect the research that has been accomplished, the new safety and mobility needs that have been identified, and the new priorities that should be established. The plan will be based on peer-reviewed literature, inputs from professionals dealing with this issue and discussions with seniors. It will be published by TRB in the year 2000 in a report to be titled: Transportation for an Aging Society - Initiatives Drawn from a Decade of Experience. This activity is being supported by NHTSA, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute on Aging.
Forums and Focus Groups
There is a need for a national dialog on the transportation needs of older adults, on where the system is falling short, and what remedial measures are viable. Included in this dialog will be practitioners and authorities as well as older people and their advocacy groups such as the AARP, and the private sector. This activity is being supported by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS), the Eno Transportation Foundation and NHTSA.
To initiate this dialog, a series of forums and workshops are being conducted across the country early in 1999. The intent is to bring the current state of the art and programs to transportation professionals, medical and social service providers, and the agencies and public interest groups who deal with the elderly on a day-to-day basis. These forums provide an opportunity to discuss ideas and innovations and to help identify the roles that different authorities and agencies can have in aiding older people to be safe drivers or, where appropriate, to help transition the older adults to nondriving status. The forums and workshops are designed to provide practical guidance to those people who deal with older person transportation issues with respect to highway design and operation; driver assessment, rehabilitation, and regulation; and transportation choices. Communities that sponsor these forums have a high degree of interest in these issues and a clear intent to work toward resolving them. At a national level the forums will identify opportunities to expand our knowledge base and capabilities to provide cross-cutting programs for older adults, and identify sites to implement and evaluate model programs.
Forums for professionals
Each forum will bring together approximately 100 policy makers and practitioners and will include:
Focus Groups for Older People and Their Lay Care Givers
Focus groups will follow the forums to bring together older people and their lay care givers (usually adult children) to discuss the elderly driving and transportation issues. The lay care givers would be asked about the difficulties they are experiencing with their parents in either driving cessation issues or in providing them with transportation. More importantly, since the care givers will be in their parents' situation in 20 years, they will also be asked to address what needs to be changed to improve the situation so that there is better and safer transportation when they reach their parents' age. The focus groups will be advertised through older person media sources and the area agencies on aging. They will be led by a professional focus group leader aided by local professionals and advocates for older people. Their objective will be to determine the extent that older people support the proposed activities and to identify alternatives to address elderly transportation issues. Focus groups will be conducted by the Beverly Foundation, supported by AAAFTS.
Develop National Agenda and Strategic Plan to Provide Safe Transportation for a Maturing Society.
A draft national agenda, being developed with the assistance of the Eno Transportation Foundation, will take the results of the above activities and establish a blueprint on what needs to be done to manage the safe transportation for older adults in the first half of the next century. It will also provide preliminary guidance for the program funding requirements at the National and State level for the next decade. The agenda will be presented in a report to be called: National Agenda and Strategic Plan to Provide Safe Transportation for a Maturing Society.
International Meeting on Transportation for an Aging Society
An international conference addressing transportation for an aging society will be held at the Natcher Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on November 7-9, 1999. The conference will be part of the Administration's participation in the United Nations International Year of Older Persons. The conference will address both operational and research issues and findings. The results of the forums and focus groups, the draft Transportation for an Aging Society - Initiatives Drawn from a Decade of Experience, and the draft National Agenda and Strategic Plan to Provide Safe Transportation for a Maturing Society will be presented at the conference. Exemplary programs will be showcased, and prospects for their replication in other areas of the country (and perhaps around the world) will be discussed. Workshops will be held to discuss and refine the suggested research and operational program needs and resources needed to get them accomplished. The conference will be used as a basis to develop the following products:
For more information contact: John Eberhard at 202-366-5595 jeberhard@nhtsa.dot.gov or Donald Trilling at 202-366-4220 donald.trilling@ost.dot.gov or Richard Pain at 202-334-2964 rpain@nas.edu.