PORTLAND (AP) – Margaret Emmons hadn’t driven in more than 20 years. So when her husband died last fall, she had no use for their 1997 Ford Taurus.

Rather than sell it or give it away, she decided to trade it for credits for rides through the Independent Transportation Network. All she has to do now is call for someone to come and give her a ride, possibly in her old car.

“It’s what saves me,” Emmons, who’s 80, said after returning from the grocery store on a snowy day. “I’d be sunk without it.”

The concept of trading cars for rides is part of the transportation model created by a mother whose son was run over by an older driver. Launched a decade ago, the Independent Transportation Network has taken root in Greater Portland, providing 15,200 rides to seniors last year with no taxpayer money for operations.

And the idea is catching on.

This year, pilot programs are being launched in Santa Monica, Calif., Orlando, Fla., Charleston, S.C., and Mercer County, N.J. And the organization’s founder hopes to launch a national initiative with help from Congress.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she will introduce a bill next month that calls for a five-year, $25 million grant program to expand the system, along with tax incentives to encourage seniors to give up their cars when the time comes.

“I think this is an example of a great local project that we can take nationwide and make a real difference for seniors across the country,” said Collins, whose bill is titled “Older Americans Sustainable Mobility Act.”

The program is the brainchild of a woman who saw firsthand what can happen when a senior who shouldn’t be driving gets behind the wheel.

Katherine Freund watched in disbelief as a motorist ran over her 3-year-old son Ryan as he played in front of their house in 1988. The Buick never stopped and the 84-year-old driver later told investigators that he thought he’d run over a dog.

The accident left her toddler in a coma, and Freund stayed at his hospital bedside until he went home from the hospital 10 days later.

Ryan eventually recovered, and Freund went on to study the issue of senior drivers while in graduate school.

“What was a personal experience for me was a much larger social problem,” she said. “I thought, This thing has to be fixable.’ This isn’t a disease for which there’s no cure. We know what the solution is. We need transportation for the elderly.”

By the time she left the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service with a degree in public policy she had refined her idea of giving seniors incentives to give up their cars by trading them in return for rides.

Freund, a former real estate agent, knew that a person’s biggest appreciating asset is usually a house and that a person’s biggest depreciating asset is usually a car. For seniors, those cars are often depreciating while getting little use.

Using the model of a reverse mortgage, a home equity loan that enables seniors to tap into the value of their homes, Freund applied the formula to cars.

Under the program, seniors trade in their cars and the value is booked in a debit account from which they can draw to receive rides. Family members and friends also can add to the debit account by donating cars or cash, or their time as volunteers.

Taxpayers win because the program operates with volunteers and donations. Seniors win because they get to ride in a regular car, not a taxi or a bus. And the car comes when they want it. No waiting at cold, icy bus stops.

As the system evolved, its income sources expanded. Now communities that help to recruit volunteers are given credits for rides for their seniors. Volunteer drivers also get credits that they can donate to a senior or set aside for themselves. Doctors, supermarkets and other businesses frequented by seniors get into the act by providing small donations for each ride.

An annual campaign helps to meet the $250,000 budget, most of which goes to an executive director, outreach coordinator, two dispatchers and six part-time drivers. There are many more volunteer drivers, along with two Americorps VISTA volunteers and two senior job trainees.

These days, Emmons is one of 1,000 members of ITN in Greater Portland. The four pilot communities will begin offering rides this spring and summer.

The need for transportation for seniors like Emmons is great.

The 65-plus population accounts for more accidents on a basis of miles driven than any group other than teens, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And their numbers will swell as the nation’s 78 million baby boomers reach their golden years.

Sitting inside her tidy apartment as snow fell on a recent day, Emmons explained how she and her husband saw that ITN could fill a need when he fell ill.

The retired RCA employee had done all of the driving for years because of Margaret’s eye problems, and ITN helped to fill the void while he was sick. He’d drive when he felt well, and he’d request a ride when he was too ill to drive.

After he died on Sept. 7, ITN hauled away their car on a flatbed truck. Margaret Emmons received about $2,000, the car’s wholesale value, all of which went directly into her account so she can continue to request rides as needed.

Her Taurus was nicer than most donated cars, so it will join the small fleet of ITN vehicles. ITN sells donated vehicles it doesn’t need.

Emmons uses ITN to go to her doctor’s office or to get groceries. On average, $7 to $8 is deducted from a user’s account for each ride. She receives discounts for scheduling her rides in advance and for sharing a ride with someone else.

She likes being in control and not having to rely on charity from family or friends.

“The last thing I’m going to do is go begging rides from people,” she said.

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Independent Transportation Network http://www.itninc.org/

ITN America http://www.itnamerica.org/

AP-ES-01-16-06 1051EST