What Do Las Vegas Seniors Need To Know About Ride Sharing?
Study Finds Ride Sharing Services Like Lyft And Uber Improve the Lives of Older Adults in Las Vegas
According to AARP, family caregivers provide 83% of the transportation needs to older adults every year, which equates to 1.4 billion trips! Now there is a new way to think about senior transportation services that free up family caregivers and helps seniors maintain their independence.
You may have noticed that there are fewer taxi cabs on roads in Las Vegas, and lots of cars with signs for ride sharing programs such as Uber, Lyft, Hitch, ZimRide, RideScout, and more.
For Las Vegas seniors, understanding how ride sharing can enable them to travel short distances without getting behind the wheel of their own car, or depending on friends and family members, can be life changing. “With a healthy knowledge of the way each ride sharing service works, seniors can be on their way to embarking out on brave, new journeys, or the convenience of a simpler, cost effective way to run errands.”
Ride-sharing technology provided by companies like Lyft and Uber have the potential to lead to vast improvements in the lives of older adults who have no means of transportation. To date, however, most ride-sharing services have left seniors who don’t have access to smartphones, or who aren’t tech savvy, out of the equation completely.
The New York Times recently reported that older people are not using Uber and Lyft because “many are intimidated by ride-hailing apps.” Older adults are warned continually about scams and identity theft, and may fear that misusing the phone app could empty their bank accounts.
According to the NY Times article, the Pew Research Center reported that more than half of adults over 65 own smartphones, yet only a quarter of adults 50 and older used ride-hailing services in 2018 (a leap, however, from 7 percent in 2015). By comparison, half of those aged 18 to 29 had used them. In a survey by AARP, only 29 percent of those over 50 had used ride-hailing apps. “Two-thirds said they weren’t likely to do so in the coming year, citing in part concerns about safety and privacy.” Regardless, transportation experts still see ride-hailing “as a way to improve mobility and preserve independence for older people who can or should no longer drive, or never did.”
Read more about Lyft and Uber for seniors and the potential that ride-sharing services have to improve seniors’ lives CLICK HERE
BrightStar Care of Las Vegas provides a full continuum of home health care services, including companionship, personal care, dementia care, transportation, medication assistance, skilled nursing, and more, to improve our clients’ health and quality of life. For seniors with transportation needs, our senior companions help with errand running. An in-home caregiver can take your loved one to visit family or friends, go shopping, or go to an appointment. Grocery shopping can be an enjoyable outing for many seniors if they have a companion. To learn more about our Senior Companions and transportation service for clients please Click Here
Source:
https://www.aginginplace.org/what-seniors-need-to-know-about-ride-sharing/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/health/uber-lyft-elderly.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2019/09/18/study-finds-ridesharing-services-like-lyft-and-uber-improve-lives-for-older-adults/#39cfaf2f2801