Friday, September 23, 2016

Is The 85 and Over Crowd Taking Over the Roads?

Me in the not-so-distant future.
Here's an eye opener: drivers over the age of 85 are now the fastest-growing segment of American drivers. According to the Orlando Sentinel, their numbers doubled between 1998 and 2013- to amost 3.5 million. Kind of concerning when you consider that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that, per mile traveled, fatal crash rates increase starting at age 70 and are highest for driver over the age of 85. The CDC says this isn't because they are more likely to collide with something, but because they are more likely to succumb to injuries when involved in crashes.

Drivers over the age of 50 are increasing too, with 93.5 million in 2013, making up 44% of all drivers. Conversely, there are fewer 16-year-old on the road now than at any times since the 1960s. In 2014, there were 1.08 million drivers aged 16. Five years earlier, in 2009, there were 1.72 million, so a big drop. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute says only 24% of eligible U.S. 16-year-olds have a driver's license. 

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.