Travel behaviour and mobility needs of older adults in an ageing and car-dependent society

ABSTRACT

An ageing population poses long-term challenges for a nation’s health, labour force market, housing and transport, affecting economic growth, living standards and government finances. With increasingly rapid ageing in both developed and developing countries, how to develop future transport frameworks, taking into account the increasingly large ageing population and their travel needs, has been emerging as a major challenge in urban policy development. This review explores how demographic changes in an ageing society and the associated travel patterns of a changing older cohort may impact on future transport demand by providing evidence on the travel behaviour of older adults, its associated influencing factors and the possible alternatives to car transport for older adults. It concludes by discussing major policy areas for addressing the elderly’s mobility needs via the provision of future transport infrastructure and services, implementing legislative and institutional approaches, and building accessible mobility environments. The paper also identifies key directions for further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• travel behaviour
• ageing
• built environment
• active travel
• health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Becky P. Y. Loo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0822-5354

Notes

1 The terms, ‘baby boomers’ and ‘new old cohort’, generally refer to those born in the immediate post-World War II period. This group comprises a large share of tomorrow’s older population. Siren and Haustein (2013) argued that the travel behaviour of the ‘new older cohort’ would differ from that of the ‘older population’, as they are the first generation to be born into and live their whole lives in a society with modern mobility, characterized by auto mobility and long-distance leisure travel. In addition, this group has benefited from the development of the welfare system, healthcare innovations and economic growth, ensuring that they are healthier and have more active lifestyles, more varied consumption patterns and more leisure activities than previous generations (Coughlin, 2009; Siren & Haustein, 2013).

Additional information

Funding

This paper was partially funded by a research grant from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council General Research Fund [HKU 748912H].