Independence in transportation

The other week, there was a thought-provoking workshop called “Imagine No Barriers” held in Wolfville.

I went to hear keynote speaker Katherine Freund of the Independent Transportation Network (ITN). There are networks operating in 10 U.S. cities and the notion is currently under development in Canada, but it was new to many.

The program offers rides, round the clock, seven days a week, to older adults and those with vision problems. Fees average $6-8 a trip. Riders can trade in their cars and get credit for travel. Volunteer drivers can bank their hours on the road to use later for themselves or for family in other places.

In Portland, Maine, where Freund lives, the program provides nearly 17,000 rides a year to about 1,000 members age 65 and older. ITNAmerica sets up close to 26,000 rides a year and hopes to have 40 affiliates by 2010.

Essentially, she said, the idea is shared capacity or "the chariot is there whenever you want it." But Freund had to be determined to put her concept into practice. She said after grad school she wrote 10 grant proposals before she got five cents, but now Freund firmly believes that articulating a problem produces the answer.

The Wall Street Journal recently named Freund among “12 people who are changing your retirement…. Pioneers who are shaping the way North Americans will live, work, and play in later life.”

A modest woman, considering the awards she has won, Freund is worth listening to.

Need is like the Grand Canyon: huge

After working 10 years to make her ITN concept a reality, Freund is taking time out to spread the gospel in places like Canada, Ireland and Australia. "The need is like the Grand Canyon. It's huge," Freund says of transportation for the elderly.

And no wonder, since older drivers account for 12 per cent of American traffic fatalities, according to CBS. Reports to local police of erratic or possibly drinking drivers are frequently elderly folks behind the wheel when probably they shouldn't be.

ITN is funded by donations, underwritten by private businesses and staffed by a mix of volunteers and paid employees. Freund said the grassroots organization looks like a scarecrow on the outside, but it's built like a Swiss watch on the inside.

Seniors can pay ITN as they go or, as Freund points out, "your grandmother could trade her car, and then we would set up an account for her and she could debit that account to pay for her rides. It's like a reverse mortgage on a house only it's reverse on your car," she says. You get the value of your car in rides.

What I didn't know until I did some research was that a near-tragedy 20 years ago sparked ITN. In 1988, Freund’s three-year-old son, Ryan, was hit by a car and nearly killed. The driver was 84 years old.

"You hold your child in your arms in the middle of the road and you feel your life change forever," Freund said later, adding that the driver said he thought he hit a dog. Ryan was lucky, and Freund’s idea grew from there.

The inclusive transportation forum was the first of a three-part series and designed to examine the needs of persons with disabilities and seniors and inclusive transportation in Nova Scotia. A master plan is in the works and Freund's example of thinking outside the box certainly added to the mix.