SILVER HAIRED LEGISLATURE RESOLUTION NO. 4002
As Amended by SHL Committee of the Whole
A RESOLUTION urging the Legislature of the State of Kansas to continue supporting and funding
collaborative community-based transportation for senior citizens.
WHEREAS, The Baby Boomer generation is the largest in U.S. history, making up a large
portion of the 46.2 million Americans aged 65 and over, representing 14.5% of the population, an age
group projected to increase to 82.3 million and 21.7% of the population by 2040; and
WHEREAS, The 2020 population of Kansans aged 65 years and older was more than 460,000
people, representing 15.8% of the state’s total population, and that age group is projected to increase to
more than 817,000 and 24.0% of the state’s total population by 2040; and
WHEREAS, Upon reaching retirement age, nearly 90% of Americans will choose to “age in
place” in their homes and communities; and
WHEREAS, In the rural and suburban communities where senior citizens are most likely to
live, public transportation may be either nonexistent or so limited as to prove impractical. More than
5.5 million Americans aged 65 and over, including a large population in Kansas, live in areas where
public transportation services are poor or nonexistent; and
WHEREAS, While more than 20% of Americans aged 65 years and over do not drive, for the
nearly 80% who do, the dangers of driving increase with age, as physical and mental abilities decrease;
and
WHEREAS, In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, statistics
showed that about 7,500 adults aged 65 and over were killed in automobile crashes, and almost
200,000 senior citizens were treated in emergency departments for crash injuries; and
WHEREAS, For the senior citizens of Kansas and the nation to live successfully in their chosen
communities, they must be able to access medical and other essential services; and
WHEREAS, Caregivers provide or arrange over 1.4 billion rides per year for senior citizens,
but those who live long distances from their families or who need more frequent rides to receive
ongoing medical treatment require more formal services; and
WHEREAS, Inadequate transportation hurts senior citizens’ physical and mental health by
decreasing their access to needed medical services and increasing social isolation, contributing to the
possibility of placement in long-term facilities at a significantly higher cost; and
WHEREAS, The senior citizens of Kansas and the nation face an ever-growing mobility crisis;
and
WHEREAS, A collaborative community-based transportation system that is developed through
cooperation between local entities and state agencies and that creates multiple transportation options
for senior citizens in any given community could help combat this mobility crisis and create a positive
quality of life for senior citizens:
Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Silver Haired Legislature of the State of Kansas: That we urge the
Legislature of the State of Kansas to continue supporting to support and to increase the funding for of
collaborative community-based transportation systems, including micro-transit support in rural and
remote areas, for the senior citizens of Kansas; and
Be it further resolved: That we urge the Legislature of the State of Kansas to support the
involvement of and control by local entities in establishing these collaborative community-based
transportation systems.
Be it further resolved: That the Kansas department of transportation (KDOT) study and identify
transportation needs in rural and remote areas and develop and implement plans that support those
needs and that KDOT coordinates with local entities such as county governments, area agencies on
aging, the silver haired legislature or other organizations to establish effective rural and remote
transportation plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SILVER HAIRED LEGISLATURE RESOLUTION NO. 4002As Amended by SHL Committee of the Whole A RESOLUTION urging the Legislature of the State of Kansas to continue supporting and fundingcollaborative community-based transportation for senior citizens. WHEREAS, The Baby Boomer generation is the largest in U.S. history, making up a largeportion of the 46.2 million Americans aged 65<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":750,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-758","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions\/760"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}