AARP Releases Survey on Transportation Needs of Older New Yorkers

- Metro New York Conference Explores Challenges, Approaches, & Policy -

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 -- AARP will release a survey assessing the transportation needs of older New Yorkers living in the metropolitan area. The survey of AARP members age 75+ examines how they prefer to get around when they can no longer drive, the barriers that exist and how they differ in urban and suburban areas, and what can be done to help older adults get around and maintain an independent lifestyle.

The survey is being released at a conference of regional transportation planners, community activists and public officials sponsored by AARP, the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council, MTA and the NYU Wagner Rudin Center for Transportation and Policy Management. Best practices as well as policy and economic and institutional challenges related to transportation for older adults will also be examined by leading transportation officials.

  Among the survey findings:
  * 55% metropolitan area New Yorkers age 75+ would have to move from their
    current neighborhoods if they couldn't drive.
  * Income factors heavily into older adults' mobility with lower-income
    adults much less likely to drive and leave their homes or apartments.
  * City dwellers prefer buses while those living in suburbs & small towns
    prefer community or senior vans.

  When:     Tuesday, September 26 -- 8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

  Where:    New York University -- Rosenthal Pavilion, Kimmel Center
            60 Washington Square South, 10th Floor

  Who:      James Simpson, Administrator, Federal Transit
             Administration (FTA)
            Tom Nelson, Chief Operating Officer, AARP
            Joel P. Ettinger, Executive Director, NY Metropolitan
             Transportation Council
            Allison L. C. de Cerreno, Co-Director, NYU Wagner Rudin Center
             for Transportation Policy & Management
            Neil Yellin, President, MTA Long Island Bus
            Robert D. Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association
            Katherine Lapp, Metropolitan Transit Authority
            Lawrence C. Salley, Commissioner, Westchester County Dept.
             of Transportation