ABSTRACT
Transportation policy for the elderly and disabled is made in multiple arenas and by multiple actors in the United States (US): the Courts, Congress and fifty state legislatures, influential even if small advocacy groups, and hundreds of transit operators and thousands of social service transportation systems. National and state policies on transportation for the elderly and disabled have focused on two specific issues: first, changes in traditional transit services, and, second, the provision of special transportation services operated separately, and often independently, from those provided by traditional transit operators. A number of Federal agencies are involved in funding special transit services for the elderly and handicapped, so it is hard to identify all their approaches and underlying policies. Ironically, the US Department of Transportation probably spends far less on special transportation for the elderly and handicapped than do the Federal Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and Labor.
