For a senior, or anyone else, to surrender driving privileges seems akin to signing one’s death warrant. To lose access to the convenience of just getting in your car and going out when you want can feel like you’ve been placed under house arrest.
It need not be that drastic. For one, going carless saves people approximately $5,000 a year. No more expensive new or used car prices to pay. No more high auto insurance payments. No more costly car repairs. And no more state and city fees you get dinged with for owning a car and possessing a driver’s license.
With that extra $5,000, a senior could afford monthly cab fares. What a senior saved in no longer having auto insurance payments would cover a cab ride a week, or more rides depending on distance. Money saved having no car repairs, no car payments and no gasoline expenses would free up more cash for paid transportation, along with extra income to cover survival needs, food, rent, medicine, house repairs and more.
For seniors in Greensboro, free transportation alternatives exist. For example:
Senior Wheels for medical rides: Call 373-4816 to learn more about this program serving seniors in Greensboro and High Point with transportation to medical appointments.
Shepherd’s Wheels: Call 378-0766 to find out about free rides to non-medical appointments — grocery shopping, drugstore visits and any other non-medical transportation need.
Hanging up your car keys has other rewards, to name a few:
1. Never having to worry about causing an accident by hitting another car when you were driving long past when you should have stopped; or causing a fatality; or losing your life in a deadly wreck.
2. No more fighting traffic on streets like the dreaded Wendover Ave where for some driving is a scary experience full of anxieties and the agony of traffic jams that would tax the patience of a saint.
3. Sitting back and relaxing, being chauffeured like the rich and famous instead of driving with dwindling reflexes and aging eyes on bustling roads and frantic highways.
Maybe it’s time to look at giving up driving in a different light. Maybe it’s time to view it as a liberating event freeing you from the high costs of car ownerships and the inconveniences of maintaining a gas guzzler. And maybe its time to stop driving on today’s roads and highways where over 6,000,000 people are involved in auto accidents yearly and an estimated 115 people die daily.
Senior Friendly Guilford 