Personal Mobility for Seniors

The ability to move around freely is critical, especially for the elder to meet their daily needs and to socialize. As health and fitness deteriorate, many aging drivers give up their cars, which is an emotional shock for them.

Public transit is supposed to help independent mobility for carless seniors. However, the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging revealed the problems with that:

Getting to the bus stop, may not even occur to us as something to be considered whether it will be safe to go out at all. However, for seniors, slip and fall may turn into a fateful event. Prudently, they stay at home leaving basic needs unmet, when the long sidewalk [not shoveled of snow or ice] is in their way, especially when a walker is needed.

Getting on the bus is daunting too when you struggle to lift your walker. The elderly are conscious of the schedule and of others who might get annoyed by them being too slow.

Once on the bus, a senior is hurried to find an empty seat - it’s hard to stay upright when the bus rocks and yanks. Most of the seniors are embarrassed to ask for a free seat, despite their right is posted above the front seats.

Getting off the bus: Many can't trudge through the crowded aisle to the emptier back and despite their embarrassment, the seniors [with their walkers or troller with groceries] block the front to use the bus's kneeling feature.

Solving this mobility problem is urgent: it's estimated that seniors will make up a quarter of the population in the most western world by 2031. However, public transit is generally and intrinsically inadequate let alone for seniors' needs. Thus, technological, or organizational, or policy solutions for public transit other than interim are exercises in futility.

Solution:

Even if urban transit can be door-to-door with easy boarding, guaranteed sitting and cargo space for each passenger, we must avoid this risk of "affluence diseases".

Walking is the first skill a baby tries to acquire, and the last move a senior to give up because the optimum physical activity is conducive to mental fitness. Health complications are snowballing when seniors stop moving their bodies (50% with permanent hip fractures die within five years).

Civilization needs a wise, compassionate, mentally agile, and creative population. These valuable personality traits take a lifetime to develop but they pay off only when somatic problems don’t interfere with the brain. Radical solutions for the climate crisis boil down to the quality of human capital.

Hypocrisy aside, we don’t need population or longevity for sake of it, the civilization doesn’t need cannon fodder or consumer herds for the ecocidal GDP-economy setup by the psychopathic oligarchy.

Most seniors become unfit for driving too soon. On the other hand, people must be physically agile for a productive happy life. Walking and running are not suitable for trips over a few km or with some luggage or in inclement weather.

The solution is an active personal vehicle (APV) - ultra-compact, essentially human-machine hybrid when human input is an essential part of propulsion and control.

Stored or parked upright, APV FELA takes only1sq.m or 2sq.m when locked to bike rack. As such, zero-CO2 FELA is the “door-to-door” and even indoor vehicle i.e. seniors can use it inside of shopping mall.

Step-thru level is 44cm and it can still be lowered by another 10cm with an optional kneeling mechanism, and when stepping in or out and sitting you can prop yourself at the front and middle arc of the FELA cabin.

Seniors will enjoy a trip in recline position without usual for upright bike joint pains.

In statically stable FELA one can’t slip and fall on an icy-groovy road. In crashes at city dominant speed and cases, you will be saved by structures around you.

Running daily errands, going to social events, or for nature, seniors can get the optimum of physical activity.