O.C. Cities Urged to Offer Transit for Elderly

With Orange County’s elderly population expected to grow nearly 80% in the next two decades, the county’s largest transportation agency reported Monday that it cannot cope alone with the accompanying demand in service, and it urged cities and private businesses to fill the gap.

“We’re really not going to be able to handle the kinds of numbers we’re looking at in the future, and so we’re looking for the communities to provide transportation directly,” said Dave Simpson, spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Currently, Orange County is home to about 290,000 people 65 and over. Analysts say this group will grow to nearly 520,000 by 2020.

Among seniors, the fastest growing segment will be those 85 and older, whose numbers are expected to increase 20%. Only a third of that population still hold driver’s licenses; the rest are dependent on others for transportation.

In a study approved by the authority Monday, analysts recommended that Orange County’s cities begin offering their own local transportation services to seniors, particularly because 90% travel fewer than 10 miles from their homes.

The study also recommended that private businesses, such as HMOs and retirement residences, offer their own transportation services. The transit agency also will encourage seniors to use county bus lines.

Many seniors were reluctant to ride the bus, the study found, because they were confused by the bus schedules and felt that bus stops offered little shelter from the weather and left them vulnerable to street crime.

County seniors and some of their advocates have called for the creation of a regional transportation system similar to the defunct Dial-A-Ride van program of years past. However, transportation officials say the cost of reviving that program would be nine times that of regular bus service.

The county does provide similar transit service for the mentally and physically disabled, but it does so under a federal mandate, according to transit agency analyst Amy Walston. “Some are saying we should expand this service to seniors, but it’s just not feasible at all,” Walston said.

The study did find that about 90% of seniors use automobiles to get around--64% as drivers, 26% as passengers.

The study’s authors, Nelson-Nygaard Consulting Associates of San Francisco, recommended that the transit agency encourage efforts to keep seniors driving for as long as they can safely do so. Among other things, transportation officials could publicize regulations regarding driver’s license renewals and monitor legislative efforts to restrict senior driver’s licenses.

On Monday, a senior advocate who attended the agency’s meeting said she was heartened that the authority was studying the issue, but said nondriving seniors had already waited too long for transportation solutions.

“We’re getting impatient,” said Shirley Cohen, 81, of Santa Ana.