FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com

Edgewater resident Betty Steinke, 77, was recently forced to give up her driver’s licensebecause of the severe visual impairment known as macular degeneration.That left her 84-year-old husband as her only chauffeur. But it won’t be long before Leroy Steinke is off the hook.

After two years of planning, City Hall is ready to roll out a pioneering program that will allow seniors to donate their cars to a new nonprofit agency in exchange for free rides around theclock.

The Independent Transportation Network is the brain child of Katherine Freund, whose 3-year-old son was run over by an elderly motorist in 1988 while playing outside their Maine home.

“When our family recovered, I said, how do I keep this from happening to other people? How do I fix it?” said Freund, whose son is now a healthy 23-year-old. “Everybody’s family has some older person struggling with this issue. People need an escort in and out of the car. They need someone to carry their packages or fold their walker. You cannot rely on adult children to leave their jobs every day to do this.”

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Tags: Car Trade