409
We may soon have 70 million boomers too old to drive, too car-dependent to stop.
(lloydalter.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
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Japanese dashcam videos are a preview of what horrors to come.
Throwing down a terrible stereotype here, which in my 60+ years, has turned out to be more true than not, ..but older Japanese men and women are notoriously bad drivers.. esp. the old men in hats.
Holy hell, do not EVER wear a hat when you drive. It sucks the ability to control a car right out of you.. God's honest, I have seen that one play out over decades and it's frightening and it's real and I do not know why.
Japan has passenger trains.
It will be much worse.
I don't think it's the train drivers but the passengers, especially come rush hour where the squeeze can be awful at the big Tokyo stations.
And yeah, level crossings can also be dangerous for drivers with poor perception and timing, they'll just try to drive through thinking they can beat the train.
I meant: Japanese people can just take the train when they're too old to drive themselves, the coverage for passenger services isn't bad.
In the USA even if you don't want to drive anymore, if no one can drive you you have no other way to get around in most places… so many more people drive and will keep driving.
Given the rate of how many railway lines in Japan are being closed year after year due to falling ridership and increasing operational costs, buses and busways are supplanting the railways, and even then their timetables are also limited. Which leaves either an informal taxi service or caregivers having to do the driving for them, if they cannot be convinced to move to a care facility.
As I said in another comment elsewhere, the increasing frequency of accidents involving elderly drivers in Japan have become a serious talking point among Japanese, the popular consensus being the idea of placing more restrictions to such drivers, such as more driving examinations and how long before those drivers are no longer licensed to drive.
I'm sure it's impossible to run more trains (/s)