The first, is it smacks of forced urbanization. As I have stated before there are those of us who do not do well among people, who would rather spend time in a garden and growing our own food, walking among trees, and peeing off the front porch. You cannot do that in an urban environment. Well you could in the last instance but, let's be civilized. The point is we like our privacy and would rather be in a small community than a large one where (according to the news), crime is running rampid.
And while people live in rural areas for whatever reason there's likely never going to be a reliable transit system, because the govt. and other entities who run them will never, ever see a profit of sending buses hourly on an extra 20 mile loop that would be mostly if not all the way empty. But say that happens, what about their shopping? Many transit buses do not have a a trunkload of space for groceries or other supplies a homeowner might need. And I know there must be a regulation against carrying flammable liquids on their busses.
Then we have our houses. And here you might have a point. A lot of us are getting too old to keep up our houses, most of us do not live in generational houses, but here we are. We have houses full of memories, and it's hard to put a price on memories. I know the same can be said for apartment dwellers (who can afford those condos with their HOAs) that feel t he same way. But out here in rural country, we look out our kitchen windows and can remember our children playing, we can marvel at the shade tree we planted in the backyard, or even pick a piece of fruit off our own fruit tree. Can you do that in an urban area? As for me personally, I look out and I see acres of trees, my trees, the ones that clean the air we breathe, the same ones that will be cut in a couple of decades to help build houses or maybe even a tree house. The exact same trees that were planted when they were last cut. And while I'm out surveying the land, I have a year round creek which needs investigating (just ask my great grandson). And it also provides water for the wildlife and near-tamed deer which mysteriously disappear during hunting season and return when the season is over...
Then there is the air quality, sure we have to put up with pollen, but, most urban dwellers have not experienced the after rain smell of a forest. Which brings us to the urban areas are noisy and they stink. Stink worse than the skunks I have wondering the property. The urban areas have large rats, larger than the opossums that visit me.
Aside from the Rodentia, there is another kind of rat, the two-legged kind. The ones that escape from the city, comes to the rural areas for a vacation, and not only complains that we're not like the urban area with their amenities but (and this is worse) have no respect for their surroundings as they leave traces (trash) laying where they have been. Sure country folk can and do the same, but, there are more visitors than residents, and after every summer weekend there needs to be a push to clean the areas that the urbanites visit. I guess you can call that job security. The good news about the urbanites is they do stupid things like want to pet the wildlife (and complain when skunks spray them) take a hike in nothing but tennis shoes, a t-shirt and shorts, and get lost because they do not know the area. I call it Darwinism at work, the official wording is search and rescue, the R&S costs the county money, yet, does the rescued urbanite pay, nope it is their right to be rescued and will possibly scream at their rescuers about not getting their sooner...
Well you get the picture.
The second thing that I find wrong, is you say the Saturn is rusting in the driveway. Saturn's do not rust, Their bodies are a form of plastic. And when driven on a regular basis (any car will suffer in parked in the field for years) is as reliable (maybe even moreso with all the recalls I see) than many newer vehicles. I know I have a 1990 Saturn that I drive on a regular basis, and it still gets 35+mpg on road trips (not so big in today's terms but practically unhear of in those days). And I find whatever repairs I need to make on the Saturn is cheaper than many newer used cars. So bad example. But in case you're worrying about the Saturn, I know people who live rurally that would be glad to get it out of your sight when the time comes.
"...rather than planning for alternatives which work for everyone."
THIS I want to hear - alternatives that work for EVERYONE ALL THE TIME ANYWHERE. However, in reading your post, Lloyd, the only takeaway was "throw away your keys" without supplying alternatives for EVERYONE.
"Instead, we should be targeting neighbourhood accessibility and reducing auto dependence for all. “Enacting such policies also shifts the conversation from one of reducing possibilities (i.e., giving up onés independence) to expanding community amenities and opportunities with increasingly age-friendly community design.”"
I'll ask you like I did a commenter in another post (but differently) - how would YOU expand community amenities for rural area and make them work, as your subtitle boasted?
My Dad (75 years old) came over to visit me in Belgium a couple of years ago and borrowed an e-bike to get around our town on the outskirts of Brussels. He loved it. When I suggested he look into getting an e-bike to get around his hometown of Mississauga it was a flat no. Too dangerous. I think he's right but those streets are so wide it would be really easy to build protected bike lanes. It seems like such low-hanging fruit.
An extremely small part of the population lives in very high density major cities like NYC or London—both of which offer the amenities (dare I say, luxuries?) of tons of public transit and diverse offerings of dining, entertainment, education, and retail. Everyone else? Not so much.
When Lloyd writes, "we should be targeting neighbourhood accessibility and reducing auto dependence for all" that really is a specialized goal which doesn't fit with the vast majority of housing stock in the U.S. or Canada, to say nothing of other locations around the world. The root issue is that the world wasn't designed for old people—we used to die off at far earlier ages before medical advances and innovation changed that. And for more than 100 years now our cities have spread outwards into vast suburbs with low population density relative to urban centers.
We're not going to change that, period. Stop worrying how to turn suburbs into NYC and look to mobility and accessibility solutions instead.
Fortunately we were able to get an apartment for my mom, who can no longer drive where she can walk to the grocery store, to get her haircut, to a restaurant she likes and to a nice trail. She also has neighbors who can drive her to urgent care/her doctors 2 miles away if we are not there. She loves not being dependent on us for everything.
Everyone wants personal mobility. It started with the horse. Individual motorized vehicles are going nowhere.
Two things wrong with this article.
The first, is it smacks of forced urbanization. As I have stated before there are those of us who do not do well among people, who would rather spend time in a garden and growing our own food, walking among trees, and peeing off the front porch. You cannot do that in an urban environment. Well you could in the last instance but, let's be civilized. The point is we like our privacy and would rather be in a small community than a large one where (according to the news), crime is running rampid.
And while people live in rural areas for whatever reason there's likely never going to be a reliable transit system, because the govt. and other entities who run them will never, ever see a profit of sending buses hourly on an extra 20 mile loop that would be mostly if not all the way empty. But say that happens, what about their shopping? Many transit buses do not have a a trunkload of space for groceries or other supplies a homeowner might need. And I know there must be a regulation against carrying flammable liquids on their busses.
Then we have our houses. And here you might have a point. A lot of us are getting too old to keep up our houses, most of us do not live in generational houses, but here we are. We have houses full of memories, and it's hard to put a price on memories. I know the same can be said for apartment dwellers (who can afford those condos with their HOAs) that feel t he same way. But out here in rural country, we look out our kitchen windows and can remember our children playing, we can marvel at the shade tree we planted in the backyard, or even pick a piece of fruit off our own fruit tree. Can you do that in an urban area? As for me personally, I look out and I see acres of trees, my trees, the ones that clean the air we breathe, the same ones that will be cut in a couple of decades to help build houses or maybe even a tree house. The exact same trees that were planted when they were last cut. And while I'm out surveying the land, I have a year round creek which needs investigating (just ask my great grandson). And it also provides water for the wildlife and near-tamed deer which mysteriously disappear during hunting season and return when the season is over...
Then there is the air quality, sure we have to put up with pollen, but, most urban dwellers have not experienced the after rain smell of a forest. Which brings us to the urban areas are noisy and they stink. Stink worse than the skunks I have wondering the property. The urban areas have large rats, larger than the opossums that visit me.
Aside from the Rodentia, there is another kind of rat, the two-legged kind. The ones that escape from the city, comes to the rural areas for a vacation, and not only complains that we're not like the urban area with their amenities but (and this is worse) have no respect for their surroundings as they leave traces (trash) laying where they have been. Sure country folk can and do the same, but, there are more visitors than residents, and after every summer weekend there needs to be a push to clean the areas that the urbanites visit. I guess you can call that job security. The good news about the urbanites is they do stupid things like want to pet the wildlife (and complain when skunks spray them) take a hike in nothing but tennis shoes, a t-shirt and shorts, and get lost because they do not know the area. I call it Darwinism at work, the official wording is search and rescue, the R&S costs the county money, yet, does the rescued urbanite pay, nope it is their right to be rescued and will possibly scream at their rescuers about not getting their sooner...
Well you get the picture.
The second thing that I find wrong, is you say the Saturn is rusting in the driveway. Saturn's do not rust, Their bodies are a form of plastic. And when driven on a regular basis (any car will suffer in parked in the field for years) is as reliable (maybe even moreso with all the recalls I see) than many newer vehicles. I know I have a 1990 Saturn that I drive on a regular basis, and it still gets 35+mpg on road trips (not so big in today's terms but practically unhear of in those days). And I find whatever repairs I need to make on the Saturn is cheaper than many newer used cars. So bad example. But in case you're worrying about the Saturn, I know people who live rurally that would be glad to get it out of your sight when the time comes.
"...rather than planning for alternatives which work for everyone."
THIS I want to hear - alternatives that work for EVERYONE ALL THE TIME ANYWHERE. However, in reading your post, Lloyd, the only takeaway was "throw away your keys" without supplying alternatives for EVERYONE.
"Instead, we should be targeting neighbourhood accessibility and reducing auto dependence for all. “Enacting such policies also shifts the conversation from one of reducing possibilities (i.e., giving up onés independence) to expanding community amenities and opportunities with increasingly age-friendly community design.”"
I'll ask you like I did a commenter in another post (but differently) - how would YOU expand community amenities for rural area and make them work, as your subtitle boasted?
My Dad (75 years old) came over to visit me in Belgium a couple of years ago and borrowed an e-bike to get around our town on the outskirts of Brussels. He loved it. When I suggested he look into getting an e-bike to get around his hometown of Mississauga it was a flat no. Too dangerous. I think he's right but those streets are so wide it would be really easy to build protected bike lanes. It seems like such low-hanging fruit.
An extremely small part of the population lives in very high density major cities like NYC or London—both of which offer the amenities (dare I say, luxuries?) of tons of public transit and diverse offerings of dining, entertainment, education, and retail. Everyone else? Not so much.
When Lloyd writes, "we should be targeting neighbourhood accessibility and reducing auto dependence for all" that really is a specialized goal which doesn't fit with the vast majority of housing stock in the U.S. or Canada, to say nothing of other locations around the world. The root issue is that the world wasn't designed for old people—we used to die off at far earlier ages before medical advances and innovation changed that. And for more than 100 years now our cities have spread outwards into vast suburbs with low population density relative to urban centers.
We're not going to change that, period. Stop worrying how to turn suburbs into NYC and look to mobility and accessibility solutions instead.
Fortunately we were able to get an apartment for my mom, who can no longer drive where she can walk to the grocery store, to get her haircut, to a restaurant she likes and to a nice trail. She also has neighbors who can drive her to urgent care/her doctors 2 miles away if we are not there. She loves not being dependent on us for everything.