As individuals age, the ability (and often the desire) to drive everywhere declines. And there is obviously a public safety issue involved, where age leads driving skills to erode. So this becomes quite important:

According to the Census Bureau, the number of people 65 and older is expected to double, growing from 35 million in 2000 to more than 71 million in 2030. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety projected that by then one in four drivers will be 65 or older, statistics that have safety experts studying how cars and the drivers themselves will need to adapt as the roads turn gray.

One clear way to keep an aging population highly mobile is to increase available transit options. Similarly, transit systems that seek to cultivate older riders will have a steady source of demand for the foreseeable future. This also suggests that support for transit could be an attractive political position if sold correctly.

And while they can’t vote, it’s also clear that transit provides mobility to younger people without a license, and could also help keep some young but licensed drivers off the road, potentially saving thousands of lives a year. As much as we think of driving as a universal American habit, there are very large segments of the population effectively excluded from much of the national geography by our near-total dependence on automobiles.