508
We may soon have 70 million boomers too old to drive, too car-dependent to stop.
(lloydalter.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
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At around 84, my dad caused a small fender-bender, that's when my sister told him he had to stop driving. He couldn't turn his head to see behind him. That sucked for my sister, because it fell on her to get him out of the house for grocery shopping, etc. She was the only one who still lived in the same state. He ended up in an assisted living home for the last two years of his life with dementia.
Public transportation is great, but they don't go into the suburbs. I suppose Uber and Lyft are the solution there, but my dad had no idea how to do that, he didn't own a cell phone.
Capitalism has been fucking us hard for over 100 years, the offenses keep piling up, and only now are people starting to realize how bad it's gotten.
While true, the problem is the "American Dream" urbanism, or lack thereof. Socialism would never offer such an insane waste of resources like car dependent detached housing.
Public transportation can absolutely go into the suburbs. In fact, I think it should. Every time they have tried to extent a tram line or set up some light rails, people protested because "not in my backyard" and "everyone will just go to the city, this place will be deserted". Every time they actually went through, the suburb became more sought after and local commerce actually increased.
My dad (and his wife) are still about 10 years away from addressing the problem of needing people to drive them, but when the time comes I won't mind pitching in driving them places. We do that currently for my wife's grandparents, who, to their great credit, gave up driving because they knew they were getting too old; they even kept their car so that whoever was helping them drive places wouldn't take on the expense of using their own car.
Back to my dad and his wife, there are three of us children (six between them) within 45 minutes of them, and another two within 2 hours. Problem is they are talking about picking up and moving literally to the other coast 3,000 miles away. The sixth child (hers) lives on that coast, but still eight hours away from where they bought property.
We're currently in California, so they are tempted by the difference in property values, which I can see making sense on paper. Of course, it doesn't work in reverse, once you sell in California, you can't buy your way back in. You've spent that equity. And when you leave behind the entirety of your support system to save $300 per month, what's the plan?
No, not living in the suburbs is the solution here
Eh, probably, but it's a lot to ask of someone in their declining years to move away from everything and everyone they know, especially if dementia is a factor. It'd be different if families stayed close, but so many older adults don't have anyone nearby. They should be moving in with their kids. But their kids are overburdened, over scheduled and underpaid. And not all of them voted to keep it that way...but...
Anyway it's different from person to person, but it rarely seems to be simple.