Seven of my eight great grandparents were still alive while I was in high school and two of them lived with us. We didn't make them drive. We drove them to restaurants, church events, doctors, etc.

When I drove my great grandmother to a restaurant as a teenager in Colorado, I'd park right by the restaurant in a handicapped spot, grab her walker from the back seat and help her hobble into her favorite restaurant. It was a meaningful part of her week in later years.

There's absolutely no way it would have been feasible on public transit, even if we'd had the world-class 2024 Taipei Metro I regularly use now.

When I lived in Tokyo and in Japan in general I saw old people walk all the time. In fact the irony is, they are the ones that need to walk most. Physical inactivity accelerates senescence. Only young people can get away with not walking.

Of course there's extremely ill people and when it comes to transport policies there's always exceptions for that kind of commute, but the approach to elderly mobility right now is completely backwards. We should be encouraging modes of transport that keeps the elderly moving and autonomous.

I live in a neighborhood with a fair share of 50+ adults, and there are no sidewalks leaving the neighborhood, and few in the area. I could walk to the grocery store, I could walk to a convenience store, but I can't do so safely.

I'd be thrilled if we started making sidewalks a reality.