LIBERAL — A white Dodge Caravan pulls up in front of the Dillons grocery store in Liberal, Kansas, and Floyd Coleman steps out to help his next passenger into the minivan. Coleman, a 63-year-old retired truck driver, shuttles people around town for Liberal’s senior center. He has a few pickups and drop-offs throughout the day and can drive senior center patrons anywhere within the city limits for free.
City Bus, the public transit system in Liberal, runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. And although seniors qualify for reduced fares, the stops are sometimes few and far between.
On this hot July day, Coleman walks over to Mark Daldegan, 64, who is waiting on a bench outside Dillons. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah,” Daldegan responds. Coleman walks Daldegan to the car and helps him get in. He then folds Daldegan’s walker and stows it in the trunk before driving him a few miles to his home in south Liberal.
Because of the distance between his home and the closest bus stop, Daldegan — and many other seniors with mobility issues — rely on Coleman and the services the center provides.
“The ones I pick up are generally just trying to get to doctor appointments, grocery stores and stuff like that that they’re no longer able to get to,” Coleman said.
Liberal is in Seward County and more than 10% of its 20,000 residents are over the age of 65. Although some cities in southwest Kansas like Liberal have senior centers equipped to help clients get around, group transportation isn’t always available in smaller towns.
The problem of unreliable transportation for seniors occurs in town after town, not just in Kansas but across rural America.
More than 46 million Americans live in rural areas, and that population is older and sicker than urban populations. According to a recent CDC report, people in rural communities are at higher risk of death from accidents and injuries because of the distance to emergency care and health specialists.
Considering that 1 in 5 Americans will be over the age of 65 by 2030, the transportation problems that older rural Kansans face portend a looming shortage of mobility options for seniors who want to age in place. That means a growing number of people who will have more trouble shopping for groceries, visiting family and getting to medical care.
No public transportation here
More than 140 miles northwest of Liberal, Tribune faces a more extreme challenge of mobilizing seniors. Here in Greeley County, the state’s least populated, 1 in 5 people already are over 65 years old.
“Transportation around here is very hard because if you can’t drive and you don’t have a vehicle, you can’t go nowhere,” said Dave Tarman, 73, a regular at the Melven O. Kuder Senior Center in Tribune, population around 800. “There is no public transportation here.
“We have volunteers around the county that will drive somebody to Garden City if they have a doctor’s appointment. But sometimes they can’t find that.”
And if they can’t get to the closest biggest city? “They don’t get to go to the doctor,” Tarman said.
