Serita Lacasse, executive director of Senior Access, said some riders who use the service have moved out of the Round Rock city limits and surrounding areas due to the heightened cost of living, leading to increased need for senior transportation.
The volunteer-based organization provides seniors with transportation, medical equipment loans and light home repairs among other services.
Lacasse said Senior Access has noticed clients making smaller, more frequent trips to the grocery store, as well as giving up their own vehicles due to the costs of vehicle ownership, such as maintenance and insurance.
Two-minute impact
While a variety of ride services for seniors operate within the city limits, those who live outside the bounds of Round Rock must rely on Senior Access, rides from friends or rideshares.
Lacasse said her organization is able to provide door-to-door service to out-of-city seniors but is short on volunteers to help carry out needed services, especially as more riders move farther away in search of affordability.
“That becomes a struggle in Round Rock, in the sense of the city transportation goes to city limits and a little bit farther, but doesn’t usually go to these new subdivisions,” Lacasse said.
With a smaller pool of volunteers, the nonprofit has contracted with Lyft to offer medical rides for seniors to meet the increased demand.
While this means that service is not disrupted, Lacasse said this ends up costing Senior Access more in the long run, especially if multiple rides must be called for a senior due to time requirements from the rideshare.
“The good thing is that we’re able to get them the ride,” Lacasse said. “The bad thing is sometimes a senior isn’t as savvy to get on a Lyft, like a younger person, or maybe has a little bit of confusion and they just don’t understand.”
Along with a spike in mileage per month in 2022, distance driven by volunteers and rideshares has increased year over year.
The increase in mileage is matched with a year-over-year increase in demand.
In October, the nonprofit saw a four-year high of 1,561 rides, totaling over 17,000 miles driven. That’s up about 300 rides and 800 miles from the previous year, data shows.
Paired with a tendency for the median household income of Texans to decrease as they age, per a 2023 report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, an increasing cost of living can put additional strain on the fixed incomes of seniors, Lacasse said.
“If they didn’t work much, or they didn’t have a very high-paying job, they get very little [from Social Security],” Lacasse said.
Seniors relying on Social Security might be left with little for medical care and groceries after paying for housing, she said.
While Senior Access does not provide consistent meals, Lacasse said the group does connect riders with additional resources, such as the Round Rock Area Serving Center and Meals on Wheels.
Viola Brown, a Round Rock resident and Senior Access client, said what she appreciates most about the service is its fostering of relationships among riders. It also negated her need to purchase a car when she moved to the area.
One of the major factors cited by Lacasse—the increase in the cost of senior housing—follows a national trend.
Data from Genworth, an insurance company that helps families plan for aging care, estimates that the cost of in-home care, private room nursing and assisted living facilities roughly doubled from 2004 to 2023.
Even for residents who have owned their homes in the long-term, transportation might not become inaccessible due to costs, but simply for health reasons.
Karen Choate, who has a Round Rock address but lives just outside of city limits, said the area’s growth has both led to improved local transportation, as well as the decrease of access to curb-to-curb transportation service for nonresidents.
Choate, who is legally blind, said that prior to the growth of eastern Round Rock along East Old Settlers Boulevard, she received curb-to-curb service from Capital Area Rural Transportation System, or CARTS. When she was no longer a resident of a rural area, she found that a combination of rides from friends and Senior Access ensured she could get where she needed to go.
Choate said she walks the short distance—four-tenths of a mile—to her local Round Rock Rides stop, where she can request a pickup and travel to most places within the city limits.
“I would love to be able to drive and get to where I want, but I’m not, and so I’m very grateful that there are services that I can use and pay a nominal fee for the use,” she said.
Choate’s case is one that many area residents may find themselves in, said Edna Johnson, the city’s public transportation coordinator. She said many municipal utility districts, or MUDs, are spread throughout the city, where residents may mistakenly believe they are within city limits.
While Round Rock Rides charges $2 per ride for seniors, Senior Access is donation-based and does not require a fee.
The organization has also benefited from grant funding provided by the city. Sara Bustilloz, the city’s communications and marketing director, said the city provided $50,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding to Senior Access this year, which covers rides for about 451 seniors.
The area has several organizations offering services to seniors and taking volunteers to assist seniors:
Meals on Wheels
Volunteers are needed to deliver meals to seniors in the community.
- Accepts monetary donations
- 301 W. Bagdad Ave., Ste. 2, Round Rock
- www.mealsonwheels-williamsonburnet.org
Volunteers are needed to provide rides to seniors in the area who do not own cars.
- Accepts bingo prizes, monetary donations, gas cards
- 2498 E. Palm Valley Blvd., Round Rock
- www.senioraccesstx.org
Community members can access the center’s food bank, financial assistance and get connected to other services in the area.
- Accepts monetary donations, food, clothing, furniture, appliances, paper and plastic grocery bags
- 1099 E. Main St., Round Rock
- www.rrasc.org
Seniors and their caregivers can learn more about services, types of care and facilities available in the area.
- Accepts monetary donations, adult incontinence products, gently used durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers and shower chairs
- 475 Round Rock West Drive, Ste. 120, Round Rock
- www.ageofcentraltx.org
