Elderly face limited transit choices

WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- Aging U.S. baby boomers living in places with little public transportation will have trouble getting around as they stop driving, a report said Wednesday.

Transportation for America released a report, "Aging in Place, Stuck Without Options," that examines what is available in metropolitan areas across the country.

"The baby boom generation grew up and reared their own children in communities that, for the first time in human history, were built on the assumption that everyone would be able to drive an automobile," said John Robert Smith, president and CEO of Reconnecting America and co-chair of Transportation for America. "What happens when people in this largest generation ever, with the longest predicted lifespan ever, outlive their ability to drive for everything? That's one of the questions we set out to answer in this report."

In Atlanta, the largest metropolitan area with the worst public transportation, 90 percent of the elderly will live in places with no way to get around but driving by 2015, the report predicted. In some smaller areas like Hamilton, Ohio, that could be 100 percent.

Nancy LeaMond of the AARP said the image of retirees moving to warmer or more convenient places is untrue. She said people prefer to stay where they are or to move within the same community.