Berkeley senior parents no longer driving
The time has come for my aging, Berkeley hills-residing parents to give up driving. My dad has handled it well. My mother, on the other hand, is in denial about her driving abilities and believes that her life is over. I am wondering:
1) Aside from Lyft, Uber and the bus (my dad can't make it to the bus stop and the bus arrives fairly infrequently to their area), are their any transportation options that I'm missing? My mother had what she perceives to be a bad experience with Lyft (she is not totally adept with technology). We have family in the area, but we're all a bit stretched with what we have going on in our lives, so transporting them is going to be hard in addition to what we have going on.
2) Are there any resources available for my mother? Support groups maybe for non drivers?
Any help/advice will be much appreciated.
Parent Replies
If they are within .5 mile of a bus route, they may be eligible for para-transit. My suggestion would be to have your parents visit the North Berkeley Senior Center and ask for information about taxi vouchers. Also, they would meet other people in their situation.
Here's the city senior page: https://www.cityofberkeley.info/aging/
Here's the Ashby Village page: http://ashbyvillage.org/
You may to check out GoGo Grandparent, a phone interface service for Uber and Lyft: gogograndparent.com. It works well for my mother who lives in Rossmoor.
Take a look at ashbyvillage.org. I just started volunteering for this organization, which is dedicated to helping aging members continue to live independently in their own homes. By far, the most popular request posted by members is for rides. The East Bay chapter of Ashby Village is quite active with 350 members and nearly as many volunteers
HopSkipDrive is a ride sharing service for kids that also transports seniors. It's a bit more expensive than Uber or Lyft, but safe. They will help walk your parent in or go inside and make sure they get to their destination safely. I've been using them to shuttle my 8 year old around this summer.
A more extreme but not impossible solution would be to move your parents to a neighborhood that has more options. Perhaps even into senior housing. Look online for options.
When I lived in the San Diego area there was a company called Arrive which was like Uber for seniors. It seemed great though we didn't end up needing it. I think it serves the Bay Area too but a quick look at the website didn't say.