Planning for a future without driving.

One of the most important steps on your journey towards driving retirement is planning. Research has demonstrated that active and early planning leads you to have more favorable outcomes when you stop driving. But one of the things that we need to consider is making sure that we’re planning for a future that matters to us. When we approach a new change in our life, it is really important to reconnect with what it is that matters, what it is that I value. Why did I like driving in the first place? When we know what matters for us, it can help us take meaningful action in the plans that we make. So when we’re thinking about planning, it is important to have a few conversations with those around us, have conversations regularly with your loved ones, before you stop driving, make sure you know where there might be willing to help you, where they might be able to support you. It is also important when thinking about planning, to make a decision. about what is going to be the signal for stopping driving, When are you going to do it? Otherwise, it’s very easy to kind of kick that can down the road and never actually make that stop. So thinking about what is going to be the time, the reason that I am going to think about stopping driving. And finally, it’s also important to determine what are the priorities that matter to you, for the activities you want to do outside of your home. Why did you like driving in the first place? What did it afford you the opportunities to do? So, often, we focus on only the practical things that we need to achieve with the driver’s licence. You know, going to the shops, going to the doctor, and we forget about the things that give us joy that bring us life, the activities that we live to do. And so when you’re thinking about planning and doing your planning for driving retirement, asking yourself the questions about, what did I value about driving? What did it allow me to do, and what are the activities that bring me joy? Because if you consider those factors, then you’re going to be able to plan for a future that enables you to thrive, even though you no longer drive.

I’m a great gallery goer. So the art galleries, the portrait gallery And the museum, you know, my regular haunts. And that’s, not driving is quite inconvenient, but then I haven’t really learned, had to learn how to use the public transport. I think the thing that I enjoy most is is family and friends catching up with them. The need to do is I want to be able to drive. So that if Tony has any appointments, I can do that. If there’s an emergency, I can do that. So as a result, as we all know, as you get older, cataracts come to the play here. So I need to have cataracts done. Because I can’t drive at night and I do not drive at night because of cataracts. However, that will be resolved eventually. Um, and that’s what I want to do.

One of the most important parts of planning is considering what alternative transport options are available to you so that you can continue to live well even though you no longer have a licence. Throughout this module and throughout this toolkit, you’ll find a number of web pages and resources that provide a lot of information about a variety of different alternative transport means. A list of them could be thinking about carpooling with other people, asking them for a ride or bringing them along with you for the activity that you’re wanting to do. Considering your public transport options and being aware of the concessions that are available to you when you are catching public transport. Taxis and ride shares such as Ubers are a really good alternative transport option. And these can often be funded through packages like My Aged Care. There’s also a variety of community transport options which can be available to you that you can reach out to your councils for in order to find out a bunch of the different options. One of the options that we often forget about is active transportation. This is when you are walking, cycling to be able to get to the destinations, especially the ones that are near home. One of the concerns that we know people tend to have is that they haven’t used those forms of transportation before, and so they don’t know how. One of our recommendations to you would be asking family and friends to come along with you when you’re learning a new route, or when you’re trying out a new type of transportation, because this can be really helpful for you, especially those first few times that you do it, to be able to build confidence, to then be able to tackle it on your own. Often we think that we need to get out for everything that we need to do, that we need to leave the house. And we’ve relied on having a driver’s licence to be able to do that. But it is an opportunity to think a little bit differently. We don’t have to drive, to be able to go everywhere we need to go, to get done, everything that we need to do. There is often alternatives for a number of the activities that we need to achieve, for example, getting groceries. Woolworths, Coles, all have delivery services that work really well. You also have options available for you for getting food in like Uber Eats or DoorDash that can deliver things to you quickly. There’s opportunities to engage in using online shopping, arranging home visits for medical appointments, or even having medications delivered to your house. Again, friends and family can be really useful in understanding how you use these different services. So make sure you reach out to them and you can ask. One of the things that we really want to make sure that you understand is that we want you to allocate resources in a way that allows you to continue to engage in the activities that give you joy. If grocery shopping gives you joy, go ahead, go to Woolworths. But if it doesn’t, consider getting your groceries in and then using, the Ubers or the family and friends to go and do the activities that do bring you joy. So sometimes we need to think a little bit differently in order to plan for and make sure that we live a life that brings us joy.

And I have now, I must be that length of time. I have worked on a hierarchy. Of choices when I want to go somewhere. So if I want to go somewhere, I always think, can I walk? Can I ride? Can I catch a bus? Now I’ve got the option of a tram. Anyway, I mean, what anyone, I think it’s over the age of 70 here in Canberra, is free. I mean, why not catch a bus or a tram? It’s free. You don’t have parking hassles, you know, and the traffic hassles. You’re not going to kill a kid that runs suddenly across the road unexpectedly. All those, driving on roads is a very dangerous occupation. I do like, I’ve just found my walking’s not that good, so I’m not going any longer distances now. I do like the public transport in Canberra because, I live very close to the light rail, and and close to the, only four stops, to the interchange, for buses. There’s one at Dickson. I use the light rail. I really like the light rail in Canberra. I like Canberra’s transport options. I use taxi. I tend not to rely on friends or family. We’re very lucky to live in an age where technology can help support us. Google’s probably one of my best friends, although Google Maps can take me on strange, walking expeditions and travel expeditions. The public transport apps, you know, help with that kind of thing. So it’s just about me learning and using those. That can be challenging. I’m attached to Goodwin and, They have an Uber service. And you can get from A to B, it has to be between 8:30 and 4:30 and I assume it’s within Canberra. I haven’t tried it outside Canberra. and it’s only $10 each way. The alternative would be to find something closer. That’s number one because what we do now is out there, other suburbs, other areas miles away, or kilometers away. We’ll find something closer and adjust that way. By getting in touch, getting in touch with the community centers. And I know through the community centers, there are buses. Community buses. As time goes by, walking is becoming a bit harder. Not at the moment, but it’s a little bit I know it will be a problem. And getting to a bus stop might be difficult. So I’ve got to make sure I have enough. money to pay for, a taxi or Uber or something. The fact that I didn’t have to get into the car. And somebody else brought it to the house. I mean, what can you say? It’s a delivery service.

You’ve now reached the end of our Thriving Without Driving modules. We hope you found these modules valuable, but we don’t expect that you suddenly have no concerns about stopping driving. We know that this takes time, and you’ll need to come back to these resources over time to make best use of them. Stopping driving is a journey. It takes time to adjust in the lead up to stopping driving, and after you stop driving as well. Keep in mind, there are two sides of the stressors in driving retirement. There are stressors related to the loss of stopping driving, and there is stress related to the future planning and figuring out your new routines. Both of these sides take time, and there’ll be ebbs and flows between both of them. We encourage you to continue to make use of the resources that we provided on this website, and continue planning for stopping driving. In particular, we know that talking to others about your experiences is a really valuable aspect of stopping driving. It will help you transition in the way that’s going to work best for you. So, please make sure you talk to your peers and your friends about your experiences, and also discuss their experiences too. Good luck with your journey.