The Daily Manila Shimbun

 

Cars most common mode of transportation for elderly: Report

June 18, 2019



Tokyo--A Japanese government report showed Tuesday that cars are the most common mode of transportation for the elderly, with 56.6 pct of people aged 60 or over polled for the report saying that they drive themselves.

Of the 1,058 people who cited cars driven by themselves as a means of transportation, 67.4 pct said they drive almost every day, with the proportion topping 50 pct even among those aged 80 or over, according to the 2019 white paper on aging society, which was adopted at a cabinet meeting on the day.

People who drive on a daily basis accounted for 50.0 pct of elderly drivers in major cities and for 75.5 pct of those in towns and villages, suggesting that cars are a vital mode of transportation for elderly people in rural communities.

The survey showed that 40.4 pct of the elderly drivers plan to stop driving after reaching a certain age, and 39.8 pct said they will do so if they start to see impediments to driving, such as declining eyesight, while 11.5 pct said they plan to continue driving regardless of their age or physical impediments.

In the multiple-response survey, walking was the second most common means of moving, cited by 56.4 pct of respondents, and bicycles were a distant third, picked by 22.4 pct, according to the report.

The survey was carried out for 3,000 people between November and December last year, with valid responses coming from 1,870 of them.

The paper said that the number of fatal car accidents involving driver's license holders aged 75 or over is "on a downtrend" per 100,000 such people. In 2018, however, the number reached 8.2 for those aged 75-79 and 11.1 for those aged 80 or over, up from 7.7 and 10.6, respectively, from the preceding year. Jiji Press