It's a catch-22 for those of us who lose our reflexes, but do not have family or good bus service. There isn't always a shuttle and most people cannot afford a taxi. If something happens to me, sorry but I will keep driving until....uh.....yeah I know it's putting others in danger but we all must buy groceries.
I figure I'll be no more dangerous than the younger people who by then will be using 2 cell phones simultaneously, as well as typing with their toes of whatever foot they don't use to drive.
It's also a good excuse to avoid going to the doctor!
"But, Doctor, I have no transportation!"
One is not shopping every day. A person cannot afford it during retirement years. Nor should one be so ill to be seeing a doctor that frequently..meaning more than once per month???
Then you should not be living by yourself.
If I work out the cost of a taxi cab ride for grocery shopping twice per wk. at $15.00 round trip. $30.00 x 52 wks.= $1560.00 annually. One just organizes their shopping in bigger lumps and less trips. Even better if one shared the grocery shopping expedition with a friend or neighbour. Some of those trips could be replaced with social visits somewhere in town.
Unless you bike ...10 miles to get little things.
And what is the cost of just owning a car and running it annually?
Really, I know a guy who is earning over $80,000CAN annually, he's about 10 yrs. older..close to retirement. He doesn't have a car, is married and has a teenage daughter. He takes public transit or occasionally takes taxis. After all, it's cheaper to pile in 3 family members for 1 taxi cab ride.
No, I don't want to be in a car with someone around my age when I get frail and who if I notice is incompetent/dangerous. I have deliberately refused rides from 1-2 young people who I knew had careless driving styles.
The rationale of an elderly person living solo out in a rural area makes less and less sense. We have to completely change our attitude about where we live and where we want our necessary services to be located in relation to our home in final phase in life.
I have a good, single and childless friend who is weighing the real estate market to improve..to sell the 3 bedroom house that she inherited and move from a town of 2,000 to a city of 300,000+. Both of her parents are dead. She is 1 yr. older than I. I doubt the prospect scares her, she's lived in different cities for her education and has travelled to various cities for consulting jobs across Ontario.
I know she has given up the romantic idea of country living as a permanent home. It's not realistic for her long-term. She is quite healthy and like Anne, did spend last few years looking after her dementia/ill mother before she died.
It's a house that she loves, of course has memories for her, but for practical upkeep not realistic for her solo.