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Press
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Too Old to Drive?
By: Laura Daily, June 2008, AARP.org Beta
An 80-something driver runs over a toddler or crashes into another vehicle killing the occupant. Immediately state legislators call for and/or enact tougher requirements for older drivers. Sound familiar?
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Old Without Wheels
By: Matt Palmquist, July 14, 2008, Miller–McCune
About 600,000 elderly stop driving every year. How can we keep them mobile?
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Dignified Transportation for Seniors, feature article by Katherine Freund
July 2008, Capital Commons Quarterly: The Dynamics of Aging and Our Communities
Trading their cars for rides is the "wacky" idea Katherine Freund realized with the Independent Transportation Network in Portland, Maine. It is now taking root in many other communities across the nation and in this feature Katherine shares how her vision became a reality.
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Are your parents too old to drive?
July 7, 2008, Josh Max, New York Daily News
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Grant allows group to offer transportation for seniors
June 29, 2008, Herald Tribune.com
Jewish Family & Children's Services of Sarasota-Manatee Inc. recently received a $125,000 grant to establish a transportation network that will offer seniors transportation services.
The start-up grant, from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County's James Franklin Warnell & Dorothy J. Warnell Fund, will bring an affiliate of ITNAmerica to Sarasota.
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Transportation problems plague seniors at end of their lives
June 26, 2008, Marjorie Brooks, The Modesto Bee
Men can expect to spend the last six years of their lives dependent on others for transportation. For women the time is 10 years.
No wonder that at the latest White House Conference on Aging, lack of transportation was named the No. 3 problem in the lives of seniors, ahead of both Medicare and Social Security issues.
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Independence in Transportation
June 14, 2008, Wendy Elliott, NovaNewsNow.com
The other week, there was a thought-provoking workshop called "Imagine No Barriers" held in Wolfville.
I went to hear keynote speaker Katherine Freund of the Independent Transportation Network (ITN). There are networks operating in 10 U.S. cities and the notion is currently under development in Canada, but it was new to many.
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ITN public forum in Westport, CT.
May 30, 2008 Westport News
The Westport Human Services and Senior Services Commissions are assessing a program that might one day enable aging residents to give up driving without losing the mobility of having ready access to automobile transportation.
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Katherine Freund featured in the Wall Street Journal
February 16, 2008 The Wall Street Journal
Katherine Freund, founder of the Independent Transportation Network and Executive Director of ITNAmerica, was featured in a Wall Street Journal article, "12 People Who Are Changing Your Retirement: These pioneers are shaping the way Americans will live, work and play later in life" (2/16/08).
She is also one of three people interviewed in the podcast: "Changing Shape of Later Life."
Elderly drivers have nothing to lose but their cars
September 01, 2007 Telegraph, Rebecca Feiner
Rebecca Feiner reports on a clever American scheme that allows the elderly to give up driving with no loss of freedom or dignity - could it work here?
In Equatorial Guinea it's considered a blessing to be greying at the temples, a sign of wisdom that should be honoured by the community. Alas in Britain it's more likely to be an early symptom of invisibility and imminent disfranchisement from the rest of society.
Better Options For Older Adults
May 28, 2007 Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, Helen Kerschner and Joan Harris
Older adults need to go to a variety of life-sustaining destinations—the doctor, grocery store, perhaps an exercise class. They want to go to any number of life-enriching locales—the library, recreation center, church, a volunteer job. By reaching these destinations, they continue to participate fully in society as workers, volunteers, family members, friends, and consumers. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to stay mobile as they age.
Volunteers take the driver's seat
May 02, 2007 USAToday, Robert Davis
When Virginia James decided she was too old to drive, the 92-year-old resident of Portland, Maine, looked for a new way to get around. She came across the Independent Transportation Network (ITN), which began in Portland in 1995. It brings together volunteer drivers, donated cars and computerized scheduling to give rides for about $8.
More ways to get around
January 07, 2007 Herald Tribune
Imagine living without a car. For most automobile-addicted Americans, the thought of giving up the car keys is terrifying. Yet, it's a reality that many people -- including 45 million baby boomers --must face as they grow older.
Out of the driver's seat, but still steering the course
Summer, 2006 Transportation Research Board
In America, the car has long been a symbol of that most American attribute, the spirit of independence. Whether celebrated in song or denigrated during rush hour, the car seems intrinsic to our sense of personal freedom and even to the perimeters of our personal space. The opportunity to hop in behind the wheel and head out on the highway feels like a cherished birthright. But for those who first got their drivers license in the 1950s and 1960s, and there are millions of us, the time to consider when not to drive may not be far away. What then?
Katherine Freund: Reinventing Life After Driving
Wayne Curtis April, 2006 AARP Bulletin
In 1988, Katherine Freund's 3-year-old son, Ryan, was crossing a street outside their home when he was badly injured by an 84-year-old driver, who later said he thought he'd hit a dog. For Freund, it was an abrupt and unfortunate introduction to the issue of older drivers. Freund later studied public policy in graduate school and learned that although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a department examining the issue, and though older drivers had among the highest rates of fatal crashes per mile driven, still, nobody had a good solution. So she made the issue her cause. Wayne Curtis spoke with Freund at her office in Westbrook, Maine.
Ticket to Ride
April, 2006 AARP Bulletin, Wayne Curtis
June E. Snow remembers the day in October 2003 when her 1984 Ford Tempo just would not start. Snow, then 77, knew that repairs would be costly, and that insurance payments and her AAA dues were coming due. So she walked back into her Falmouth, Maine, apartment and made the phone call she'd been dreading. She had the Tempo towed away, never to be replaced.
No longer driving, but as mobile as ever
February 07, 2006 The Christian Science Monitor, Sara Miller Llana
Because of failing eyesight, Mary Alice Crabb had to give up driving almost a decade ago. So when she lost her husband four years ago, she also lost her only transportation.
Seniors to get more transportation choices
January 22, 2006 Orlando Sentinel, Christopher Sherman
There are 4.6million Florida drivers older than 55, and many of them surely feel like Anne Hamilton.
Leave The Driving To Us
January 18, 2006 CBS News
Seventy-five-year-old Mary Austin leaves at 5:45 am sharp to exercise three days a week. Vision problems forced her to quit driving, but she refuses to quit living.
Low-budget senior ride program flourishes in Maine
January 16, 2006 The Boston Globe, David Sharp
PORTLAND, Maine --Margaret Emmons hadn't driven in more than 20 years. So when her husband died last fall, she had no use for their 1997 Ford Taurus.
Coaxing Seniors Out From Behind the Wheel
January 12, 2006 The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Greene
With the number of older -- and less safe -- drivers growing, dozens of new transportation programs are springing up around the country to make it easier for elderly people to give up their car keys.