How Do Seniors Who Can’t Drive Get Around?

What it costs when you can’t drive anymore, what Medicare does and doesn’t pay for, what to do when a parent won’t stop driving, and what may be coming with self-driving cars.

At What Age Do Most Seniors Give Up Driving?

There is no set age. Many people keep driving well into their 70s. About 80 percent of people age 75 and older still drive.²

The bigger question is how long you’ll live after you stop. A national study of drivers age 70 and older found that drivers age 70 to 74 could expect about 11 more years behind the wheel.¹ Men that age could expect to need other rides for about 7 years after that. Women could expect about 10 years, because women tend to live longer.¹ That study is from 2002. It is the most recent national study we could find on how many years people live after they stop driving. If a newer one comes out, we’ll update this page.

That’s 7 to 10 years of needing someone to get you to the doctor, the pharmacy, the grocery store, and the grandkids’ ball games.

Does your retirement plan have a line for those years?

What Is the Largest Expense for a 65-Year-Old Retiree?

Housing. Households headed by someone age 65 to 74 spent $22,329 on housing in 2024.³

Transportation came next, at $11,414. That’s more than the same households spent on healthcare, which was $7,715.³ Total spending for these households was $65,354 for the year.³

Healthcare gets a lot of attention in retirement planning. The car costs more.

How Much Does the Average Retiree Spend on Transportation Each Year?

Households headed by someone age 65 to 74 spent $11,414 on transportation in 2024.³ Households headed by someone age 75 or older spent $6,855.⁴

The car is how older people get around. People age 50 and older make 92 percent of their local trips in a private vehicle.²

When you stop driving, the gas and insurance bills can go away. The trips don’t. You still have to get to the doctor and the store, and somebody has to take you. That costs money, someone’s time, or both.

How Do Seniors Who Can’t Drive Get Around?

People who stop driving get around in a few main ways:

Family and friends. This costs nothing in dollars, but it costs them time. It also only works if they live close and are free when you need to go. Some adult children end up cutting back at work to do it.

Taxis and ride apps. You pay for every trip, every time.

Community buses and vans. In rural Missouri, that is often OATS Transit, a nonprofit that serves 87 Missouri counties.⁷

Volunteer drivers and local programs. Your local Area Agency on Aging can tell you what is available near you. The Eldercare Locator, a public service of the federal Administration for Community Living, can help you find transportation resources. Call 1-800-677-1116 or search by ZIP code on its website.⁶

Rides through Medicare Advantage or Medicaid. Some plans cover rides to medical appointments. The next section covers who pays for what.

It isn’t a small problem. We looked at the newest Health and Retirement Study data from the University of Michigan. Of the 2,509 people surveyed who answered the question, 107, about 4.3 percent, said lack of transportation had kept them from medical appointments or from getting their medicine in the past 12 months.⁵ About 4.7 percent said it had kept them from other appointments, from work, or from getting things they needed for daily living.⁵

Does Medicare Offer Free Transportation for Seniors?

Original Medicare doesn’t pay for regular rides to your appointments.⁸

It does pay for a ground ambulance when riding in any other vehicle could put your health in danger.⁹ It may also pay for a non-emergency ambulance ride if your doctor writes an order saying the ambulance ride is medically necessary.⁹

Some Medicare Advantage plans include rides. In 2026, 22 percent of people in Medicare Advantage plans open to anyone were in a plan that offered transportation benefits. That was down from 28 percent in 2025.¹⁰ Special needs plans, which are Medicare Advantage plans for people with major care needs or people who have both Medicare and Medicaid, did better. 73 percent of the people in them had a transportation benefit.¹⁰

If you qualify for Medicaid, federal rules require your state to make sure you have the rides you need to and from your medical providers.¹¹

A ride to the doctor still doesn’t get you to lunch with your friends or to your granddaughter’s recital.

What Does a Normal Week Look Like Without a Car?

Joseph Coughlin, founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, suggests one simple question: “Walk me through Friday if you couldn’t drive.”¹²

Try it. Write down every trip you make in a normal week. The doctor. The pharmacy. The grocery store. The haircut. Coffee with friends. The grandkids’ games.

Now go down the list. Who drives you? What does it cost? How long do you wait for the ride home?

Which of those trips would you give up first?

What May Be Coming: Could a Self-Driving Car Be Your Driver?

None of this is available to you today, and nobody knows for sure when it will be.

Driverless taxis are already on the road in some big cities. As of July 2026, Tesla was running taxis with no one behind the wheel in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, with a mix of both in Austin.¹³ Three of those cities are in Florida. None are in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, or Iowa.

Regular owners can’t put their own cars on that taxi network yet. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said in July 2025 that he was confident owners would be able to add their own cars to the taxi network in 2026.¹⁴ In September 2026, he was still describing it as a plan, a mix of Uber and Airbnb where owners would put their own cars on the network to earn money.¹⁵ He said what owners earn would be more than their monthly car payment.¹⁵ That is his claim, and nobody can test it until it launches.

The self-driving feature Tesla sells on its cars today still needs a driver. Tesla says it is “intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver.”¹⁶ That means a Tesla you buy today can’t drive someone who can’t drive.

When I first read about this, I thought it could solve this problem for a lot of people who need a driver. If I couldn’t drive, I could buy a car that drives me to the doctor, drops me off at the door, goes and parks, and comes back to get me. And if money were tight, the car could work as a taxi when I’m not using it, to help pay for itself, maybe even pay for the whole thing. It isn’t here yet. But it looks like it may be coming in the not too distant future. I talk about it with prospects and clients, because the time to think about it is before you need it.

What to Do If an Elderly Parent Won’t Stop Driving?

Talking to a parent about their driving is hard. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it plainly: “Talking with an older person about their driving is often difficult.”¹⁷ Its advice for family is three steps: collect information, develop a plan of action, and follow through on the plan.¹⁷

What to watch for: changes in vision, physical fitness, attention, and how quickly they react to sudden changes.¹⁷

If talking doesn’t work, each of the five states we serve has a way to ask the state to take a look.

Missouri

Immediate family members, meaning a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, sibling, or grandchild, can file a Driver Condition Report, Form 4319. Your name is kept confidential unless a court requires it. The state may require a physical exam or a driving test.¹⁸

Kansas

Family members can send the state a signed Letter of Concern. It has to describe the driving problem and include the driver’s name and date of birth or Kansas driver’s license number. Letters of Concern are kept confidential.¹⁹

Nebraska

The Nebraska DMV has a form for this called the Citizen Reexamination Report.²⁰

Iowa

Anyone can send a signed, written request for re-examination, Form 431030. Iowa says it will try to keep your name confidential, but the driver has the legal right to know who made the request if they ask.²¹

Florida

Concerned relatives can report a driver to the state’s Medical Review program. Florida law keeps the report confidential, and no legal action can be taken against the person who makes it.²²

Taking the keys is only half of it. The other half is what replaces the car. If you become the ride, that has a cost for you too.

How We Would Look at This

Spending in retirement usually eases in the middle “slow-go” years, then often goes back up late in life when health and care costs move to the front. Losing the car can add a new bill right in those later years. Rides are only one of the costs that can come later in life. See how much long-term care costs per month.

Our approach starts with the life you want, not the size of your savings. We build an income floor from guaranteed income you can’t outlive, what we call Protected Lifetime Income. It covers your essentials, the adventures, the experiences, and the memories with the people you love. Once that income floor is in place, the rest of your money can be long-term money again, free to grow. That’s the money that can pay for rides, a driver, or a car that drives itself if one comes along.

When you can’t drive anymore, will the money be there to keep doing the things that matter to you?

Frequently Asked Questions

All figures are as of the dates shown and are for education only. Medicare, Medicaid, and state driver licensing rules vary by state and change. This page is not legal advice. Questions about liability or reporting a driver in your state belong with an attorney in your state.