Older People's Mobility: Segments, Factors, Trends

Abstract

The expanding older population is increasingly diverse with regard to, for example, age, income, location, and health. Within transport research, this diversity has recently been addressed in studies that segment the older population into homogeneous groups based on combinations of various demographic, health-related, or transport-related factors. This paper reviews these studies and compares the segments of older people that different studies have identified. First, as a result of a systematic comparison, we identified four generic segments: (1) an active car-oriented segment; (2) a car-dependent segment, restricted in mobility; (3) a mobile multi-modal segment; (4) and a segment depending on public transport and other services. Second, we examined the single factors used in the reviewed segmentation studies, with focus on whether there is evidence in the literature for the factors’ effect on older people's travel behaviour. Based on this, we proposed a theoretical model on how the different determinants work together to form the four mobility patterns related to the identified segments. Finally, based on current trends and expectations, we assessed which segments are likely to increase or decrease in future generations of older people and what should be done to support the multi-optional and independent mobility of older people.

Keywords:

• segmentation
• older road users
• ageing
• demographic change
• transport
• mobility
• gender

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all CONSOL partners for contributing to the collection of literature, constructive comments and discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. French, Scandinavian, and Czech literature was also researched but without identifying any segmentations of older road users.

Additional information

Funding

A part of the work for this article was conducted within Work Package 1 of CONSOL, “CONcerns and SOLutions — Road Safety in the Ageing Societies” supported by the European Commission under Grant Nr. MOVE/C4/SUB/2010-125/SI2.601704/CONSOL (contract period: 2011–2013).