"I grew up in a semi-rural area on a road without sidewalks, a few miles from the nearest bus stop. My parents still live there and as my dad enters his eighties, I've tried to initiate conversations with them about how they imagine navigating when they can't drive safely anymore. Like many of us who have tried to have these conversations with aging loved ones, I didn't get very far."
"I'm not sure he thought through the implications of that statement for my life as someone born with a disability that prevents me from driving. And I think it speaks to how deeply the narrative that "everyone drives" shapes the futures people will consider. Even with a daughter who has never been able to drive, and still managed to live a full and vibrant life, my father was struggling to imagine what his life will be like when he can't drive himself everywhere he wants to go."
"Research published last September from NRDC found that 36.6 percent of the population over the age of 10 in the US cannot drive or lack reliable access to a car. Yet nondrivers remain largely invisible. I would conjecture this is largely due to who is most likely to be a nondriver: disabled and poor people, recent immigrants and people of color, young people who can't yet vote, and people who have aged out of driving."
An adult child raised in a semi-rural area recounts difficulty persuading an elderly parent to imagine life without driving. The parent equates losing driving with death, despite living with a nondriving daughter who leads a full life. A recent NRDC study found 36.6 percent of people over age 10 cannot drive or lack reliable car access. Nondrivers remain largely invisible, often because they are disabled, poor, immigrants, people of color, younger people, or those who aged out of driving. Cultural car-centrism and stigma make nondriving alternatives and existing mobility strategies less visible to drivers.
Read at Streetsblog
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]