The Clearinghouse for Older Road User Safety (ChORUS) is celebrating Older Americans Month this May. The 2023 theme is Aging Unbound, and our focus is on ensuring that older adults are proactive about being a safe driver and planning for safe mobility beyond the driver’s seat.
Continued community participation is a key element to healthy aging, according to a recent public health study.1 Transportation can be a key factor for older adults trying to stay engaged in their community. As older adults move through the aging process, their transportation needs may change. Older drivers’ ability to drive can be affected by changes in cognitive ability, vision, or another medical condition, as well as some of the medications they may take.
ChORUS offers resources you can use during Older Americans Month to share the importance of planning for safety when driving, walking, bicycling, or using alternate transportation. These resources include easily customizable content, such as:
- GIFs for older drivers and organizations to use
- Suggested social media that social media managers can copy and paste to their social media page
- Sample press releases for organizations to share through their newsletters and other distribution channels
- Slides to display in lobbies
- Infographics that organizations can share with their stakeholders
- Handouts for multiple audiences
- Sample radio spots that organizations can tailor for use in their community
The number of older adults will more than double over the next several decades to exceed 88 million people.2 This Older Americans Month, encourage older adults to use the ChORUS transportation planning tool. Older drivers and those who work with older adults can use the new ChORUS transportation planning tool to plan for the road ahead. The tool takes 2-3 minutes to complete answering 13 yes-no questions and creates a personalized list of suggestions for older drivers based on their answers. Engage in older road user safety and try the tool today!