Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've long studied my ultimate retirement home in Tucson, hopefully yet this year, and being near a bus stop is ultra-important, a short bike ride to a grocery store or 2, and I'm also planning on buying a moped/scooter for longer trips!
I've already done my practice sessions, riding the buses here in Las Vegas to work and back, a couple nights a week, so that will be no adjustment at all, in fact, I've come to enjoy taking the bus! I enjoy the camaraderie at the bus stops and riding the buses, meeting new people, even making friends.
I'm actually looking forward to getting to that point of not being able to drive anymore, as I've always been a nervous Nellie behind the wheel of a car, a worry wart that's always worrying something may happen to the car, on this trip or that trip! What a relief it shall be! And no more nasty, heart-stopping repair bills or potential traffic fines!
When I first started driving in the 60s, I used to go out to do nothing but drive in rural Ohio and try to get lost. I loved it. Almost 50 years later, and having a job as a field service engineer for most of that time, and the last 30 years in the Baltimore, Washington area, I am actually looking forward to not driving unless I absolutely have to. The traffic around here is terrible.
I was actually thinking about the traffic last night, on my way home. Fifty years ago there was not as much traffic congestion as there is now. Fifty years ago there was a smaller percentage of the drivers on the road of female persuasion. That's all you need to know!
Where I live we have so many students or at-home housewives willing to run errands for the elderly or disabled. My 90-year-old neighbor has hired a few to help her out with groceries, doctor appts, etc.
What some people aren't considering is that loss of the capacity to drive need not stem from declined vision or cognition. Instead, it can come from muscular atrophy and wasting away of the body. The brain and the eyes could remain comparatively healthy, while the legs and spine don't respond too well anymore.
In the case of my own mother – a pancreatic cancer patient – her losing her capacity to drive was one of the final stages towards decline in becoming bedridden, and eventually passing. She was still driving when she was almost unable to walk, unable to cook, unable to do laundry. She'd drive to and from her chemo sessions. She'd drive to the grocery store, only to find herself to be unable to exit the car and to walk into the store. She'd sit in her car, pondering life and its vicissitudes, and then regretfully drive home.
Driving is comparatively easy, with automatic transmissions, power steering, power locks and so forth. Getting to the bus stop, or even walking towards one's own mailbox, or taking out the trash, or standing next to a stove to boil an egg, or standing next to the sink to wash dishes – these can be more physically exhausting.
The upshot? I'd worry more about basic personal-care and independent living, before I'd worry about becoming unable to drive.
Some of the senior communities are surrounded by grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, etc and residents are allowed to use those little golf carts to get around once they can't drive a car. They also have shuttles.
In Arizona you could drive a golf cart on certain streets where the speed limit was 35 or lower. You had to have a drivers license and the cart had to have a license plate. Carts don't have heat or AC.
Use a bus, taxi, or here they have a ride for a buck.
There are also friends and family.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
