Principal Investigator Joseph Coughlin
Project Website http://agelab.mit.edu/assessing-transportation-readiness-aging-america
How are transportation planners and policy makers responding to the coming mobility demands of the United States’ aging baby boomers? Previous research (pre-SAFETEA-LU) was conducted surveying metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) across the country to assess their state of ‘aging readiness.’ That work revealed that, while planners and senior MPO decision makers were well aware of the aging issue and coming transportation demands, few identified the challenge as high on their programmatic agenda. Moreover, many suggested that boomers may find a transportation environment in their old age looking very similar to their parents’ experience: few options, car dependent and low density communities. This work seeks to conduct a second survey of MPOs to see if the issue has gained prominence and action.