Since I plan to (eventually and elsewhere) focus on some of the issues that elderly people who live in the suburbs face (at least suburbs of the "type" in which I live), I'll just make a few comments here related to that. One is that while I know there is "elderly transportation" available in the area; I don't like the word, "elderly", because it kind of conjures up the image of a very frail person of advanced age, for whom the idea of just walking across his own living room may be (or seem) outrageous. There's no doubt that if people are fortunate enough to live long enough they're likely to get to some point where they're pretty much sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket over their lap (you know the image, but also the reality that such people exist somewhere, if not within your own family). So, those aren't the people I have in mind when writing about "elderly" in relation to being a pedestrian in the suburbs or anywhere else. I don't mind the term, "elderly", being used to refer to those people either.
For the generally and/or reasonably healthy and active people who are "over a certain age" I just prefer to use the term, "older people". Let's just say it like it is. They aren't "young people"; and while nobody knows how long one may expect to live, there's a point where, say, sixty just plain-old isn't "middle-aged".
I'm making these comments about older people's being pedestrians (or not) because I can't help but wonder if one reason so few adults do much walking in the suburbs may be that so many people (even reasonably young ones) develop things like arthritis in, or damage to, their knees - not to mention any "out-of-shape-ness" that starts with insufficient activity (namely, not enough of the right kind of walking), for example) that leaves a person more prone to injuries that set people on a whole downward spiral; of "bad knees". Then, too, there are the people who damage things like knees with years of one or another kind of athletic activity. The point is that when I refer to "older people" or adults I'm pretty much thinking about people who find themselves somewhere between, maybe, forty-five and the age at which they may/may not become that frail, "elderly", person in a wheelchair. While I see forty-five as "still younger than many people realize it is", I'm including that age as I get ready to make my point about the "chicken/egg" thing (and you probably already know where I'm going anyway).
In general, the issues of "the elderly" are well addressed in a suburb like mine, but in a "car-centric" area where "everyone drives everywhere) there are a lot of middle-aged and older people who (even if they go out for a morning or evening walk on their own, quiet, street or a path designated as a "good place to walk"; there are a whole lot of people who don't have a lot of time to do more walking (much other physical activity) because they have families, jobs, and whatever else make up their life. So many people don't have the luxury of not getting in their car and getting to wherever they need to be within ten or twenty minutes. I'm not going to get into the whole thing about who has the time or inclination to, say, go hiking in the mountains or otherwise be outdoorsy and active on a regular basis.
The real point is that there can be (is) a gap between being perfectly healthy and able-bodied and needing "special elderly transportation" (or a home health-aid).
I can't help but wonder if, assuming someone may have a little more time on his hands (for example, kids are in school and/or grown; or else someone makes his own hours) if the combination of things like curbs and/or traffic mixed with one or another degree of, say, "knee issues" associated with being middle-aged or older may well be the very thing contributes (at least in places such as where I live) to that downward spiral (not just with regard to mobility, but with anything that stems from having problems with it).
In other words, are car-centric suburbs (those great places to raise children, but even great places for people who don't want to deal with whatever goes with living in a city, making a whole lot of people stick with the nice, smooth and/or even, surfaces, of their nice, quiet, streets (or paths) only because they have some kind of, maybe, "knee issue" that makes walking (even when one does have some time for it) somewhere more challenging , in fact, far too challenging.
Individual circumstances and towns/cities or regions aside, the decade between, say, being forty-five with arthritis in one knee (for one reason or another) and fifty-five, with that arthritis having gotten worse, could be the decade that determines who gets knee a replacement at fifty-five, who has severe limitations until he gets one at sixty or sixty-five, and who is fortunate enough not to have something like arthritis at that sixty-five. In other words, with regard to the thing that "nobody walks in the suburbs" is at least some percentage of that a matter of "chicken or egg"?
I'm not going to get in any of the other matters associated with why walking where I live is uncomfortable and a challenge here or now. I just wanted to lay yet a different type of foundation for things I plan to write (here or somewhere else) mainly because I'm about to write a post about curbs, cars, and knee issues where I live; and while it will be relatively brief (RELATIVELY) it will also be extremely boring, tedious, and detailed (not to mention of interest to pretty much no one, as far as I can imagine).
It's just that I can't make other points without first making the ones about curbs and cars (and also - I'll admit it - I'm concerned about writing such detail and appearing to "want a medal"for doing the thing that a) I've had little choice but to do at times, and/or b) the thing that I believed would preserve, improve, my own mobility and health.
No comments:
Post a Comment