As the baby boomer bubble pushes into its eighties, we are driving into a demographic wall.
“may”?
There is always the possibility of the end of humanity.
This describes my hometown to a tee. Thirty years ago.
In what fucking world is it ok to avoid jail because you’re fucking old. If she’s too old to go to jail then we need an option to euthanize elderly criminals.
Would it make you feel better if it was actually because she was wealthy?
My 95 year old mother in law picked me up at the airport and still goes golfing each week pushing her clubs around the golf course. I trust her than most kids on the road. However, She is much different than my 80 year old mother where the doctor took away her handicap pass because she kept hitting cars in the parking lot.
Yes and most of them live near me.
And they’re ruining cars. High, upright seating position because they can’t get out of the car, big chonky tires on an SUV chassis because they hit potholes and curbs, measly little engines because they’re not going to use them anyway, driver assistance because their meds make them impaired.
Cars are will be cool again when old people don’t have to drive.
Cars are will be cool again when old people don’t have to drive
So, never?
Yes, I’m afraid the golden age of cars is past. Now they are appliances with quirky features.
And it just makes me want to burn it all down.
Ättestupa time?
I think incompetent drivers just driving off the cliff themselves is the more likely scenario.
I only knew the concept but not the word so thanks
I was picking up a some medication at the drugstore when an old frail man came in and stepped into the line. Quickly a middle-aged woman who works there says “Welcome back Fred! Haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks! Are you okay?” The guy says back “yeah, I’m, I’m okay… But my truck isn’t, I totalled my truck!”. The layday goes " oh no! That’s terrible! So how did you get here? " the guy says " my chofer brought me in to get my medications"… Lady " your chofer? ". The guy points a little past my direction and from that end here comes the skinniest, frailest old lady you can imagine " yeah, I brought him in, but I’m. Not his chofer! Not by a long shot. Is this your girlfriend? “… Blah blah blah… Holy shit, they let people like that drive by themselves! Great for them, but you and I drive on the same road! Our kids wait for the bus on the same road. Maybe the country just needs to pass the " free driver law”. You hit 60 and you get a driver code. You go to a site or call a number, enter the code and wait for your driver. Free government paid service. A normally aged person between 15 and 60 years of age then takes you and a few other friends around the places you need to go to.
I’m in my late 40s. I’m hoping think I can get another 2-3 years out of my 100k mile car and then my next car will hopefully be another 10+ year car and hopefully by then self-driving will be mature.
It’s called a bike, a train, a bus… Or walking.
I don’t know if there will be room for my 65 year old ass on bike paths dominated by wheely-ing tweens. When I lived near a reasonable amount of public transportation, I could take a 2.5 hour train to the beach or drive for 40 minutes. Whenever my car was in the shop and I had to take the bus to work I’d have to be at the bus stop at 4am to arrive at work by 6:30am vs leaving at 6a when I drove. Now that I live in a suburb of a suburb, there is no public transportation path that starts early enough to get me to or from work on time. I have an e-bike and put thousands of miles on a Segway MiniPro but neither can handle my 80 mile round trip commute. My car just passed 9 years old and 100k miles, ~30 miles per day. I paid $25k for the car itself including tax and interest, another $10k for insurance for 9 years, $35k for gasoline, $5k for repairs and maintenance, so as soon as robotaxis can beat ~$0.75/mile I’ll go that route.
Those are fantastic options where they are available.
If you live where it’s icy roads in winter and no municipal busses, well, that’s seeing one as rightly fucked, isn’t it?
Case in point, the nearest affordable grocery store (like an Aldi) is 5 miles from me and on a two lane divided road that has no sidewalks. Oyyy…
At around 84, my dad caused a small fender-bender, that’s when my sister told him he had to stop driving. He couldn’t turn his head to see behind him. That sucked for my sister, because it fell on her to get him out of the house for grocery shopping, etc. She was the only one who still lived in the same state. He ended up in an assisted living home for the last two years of his life with dementia.
Public transportation is great, but they don’t go into the suburbs. I suppose Uber and Lyft are the solution there, but my dad had no idea how to do that, he didn’t own a cell phone.
Capitalism has been fucking us hard for over 100 years, the offenses keep piling up, and only now are people starting to realize how bad it’s gotten.
Who could have possibly seen this coming??
They’ll either move into homes or be cared for by family, same as it has been for decades.
Sure they’ll kill some people before their kids take their keys…
Not my boomer parents they can rot far has I am cocern.
Mine may be. Adopted a kid outside of my race and he made himself scarse. going on a decade now.
You get what you voted for.
I was not alive to vote for or against the Interstate Highway Act
Japanese dashcam videos are a preview of what horrors to come.
Japanese dashcam videos are a preview of what horrors to come.
Throwing down a terrible stereotype here, which in my 60+ years, has turned out to be more true than not, …but older Japanese men and women are notoriously bad drivers… esp. the old men in hats.
Holy hell, do not EVER wear a hat when you drive. It sucks the ability to control a car right out of you… God’s honest, I have seen that one play out over decades and it’s frightening and it’s real and I do not know why.
Japan has passenger trains.
It will be much worse.
I don’t think it’s the train drivers but the passengers, especially come rush hour where the squeeze can be awful at the big Tokyo stations.
And yeah, level crossings can also be dangerous for drivers with poor perception and timing, they’ll just try to drive through thinking they can beat the train.
I meant: Japanese people can just take the train when they’re too old to drive themselves, the coverage for passenger services isn’t bad.
In the USA even if you don’t want to drive anymore, if no one can drive you you have no other way to get around in most places… so many more people drive and will keep driving.
Japanese people can just take the train
Given the rate of how many railway lines in Japan are being closed year after year due to falling ridership and increasing operational costs, buses and busways are supplanting the railways, and even then their timetables are also limited. Which leaves either an informal taxi service or caregivers having to do the driving for them, if they cannot be convinced to move to a care facility.
As I said in another comment elsewhere, the increasing frequency of accidents involving elderly drivers in Japan have become a serious talking point among Japanese, the popular consensus being the idea of placing more restrictions to such drivers, such as more driving examinations and how long before those drivers are no longer licensed to drive.
I’m sure it’s impossible to run more trains (/s)
This fucking terrifies me. My mom is 79, living in the most rural place ever, wtf is she gonna do when she has to give up her license? P.s. if anyone else has been in this situation what did you do?
My dad stopped driving at 80 but he remained living on the farm.
If he needed to go somewhere, there was always a neighbor happy to help out.Dad went to the car dealership and spent $10k on a reasonably good 2nd hand car that he never drove - it would only get used if he needed someone to drive him somewhere.
Using his own car that he pays all the running costs and maintenance on made it much more comfortable for him to ask a neighbor/friend/family for help.
There’s a few options: you drive for her, she moves into a senior community, she moves in with you – which is how it used to be – or none and a fender bender (or worse).
If you live somewhere that you have to drive to take care of yourself and you can no longer drive, you can no longer take care of yourself.
You move to where you can either take care of your self or be taken care of.
This is correct, but moving costs money. Which my mom doesn’t have any of, and I have little to spare. It’s going to be a big issue when she’s not able to take care of herself
You two should be discussing this now.
She will need to sell her house and car and a chunk of her belongings and move in with you or on the same street or apartments or whatever. She needs to decide what to sell and what to give to whom, now while she still has her faculties and mobility.
When you get old, you’re doing good until you aren’t and then you never are again. You two should have a plan that you can just execute.
Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately our relationship isn’t great and we are pretty estranged. My husband and I live in a 2 bedroom condo with one bathroom, small even for just us two and our cats. So she can’t move in with us. My sister is no contact with her. So yeah. The situation is messy.
Oh, well in that case let her figure it out. My parents kicked me out at 18, and at this point I wouldn’t talk to them if they attempted to reach out. I worry that they might, confronting death or needing physical daily assistance. I hope for their sake that they have whatever they need to do, planned out already.
You’re not responsible for your mother.
My grandma moved closer to people that could help her and where she was more mobile without a car.
My girlfriends grandma is 90 and she rides her e-bike almost daily. But we have some bike lanes and a grocery store is nearby.
Maybe locally organised carpools?
deleted by creator
