Travel behaviour of seniors in an aging population: an exploratory study of trip chains and modal preferences in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Sydney

The population is aging, and from a transport perspective there will be a growing number of older car dependent people in the future, as well as more people who will enter a stage in their life in which they no longer drive, either by choice or compulsion. Other modes such as bus and train, as well as network support through family and friends, may not be able to satisfy all of the needs of the elderly, raising important questions as to how we cater for their mobility and accessibility needs. The 2002 Sydney Household Travel Survey data was used to begin identifying some of the key transport themes that need to be given greater consideration, as we move forward to develop transport policies that more sensibly deliver the types of transport services that the elderly are likely to need in the future. Work and non-work centric trip chains were created and the main modes considered in this analysis were car driver, car passenger and public transport (bus, train, ferry). We investigated the current levels of mobility of age cohorts of travellers in relation to trip chaining behaviour. This enabled the identification of the current level of public transport used by young and old seniors, those aged between 65 and 84 years, and the elderly, those aged 85 years and over, in particular. The evidence suggested that existing public transport is unable to provide the seamless movement that older people increasingly demand. People aged between 65 and 84 years were more likely to use the car, as either driver or passenger, than those aged 85 years and over. This was not a surprising result given the dominance of car use. However, those aged over 85 years did engage in more complex trip chain behaviour using public transport, than those in the younger age cohorts. This was possibly due to lower driving license rates amongst people in this age group, the lack of availability of support networks and friends to provide transport, as well as the need for these older individuals to exert some independence. Furthermore, car driver trip chains dominated, whether work or non-work centric, for people aged 25 to 64 years. This has important implications for future elderly cohorts that are currently very car dependent. It also raises another interesting question; increased life expectancy will most likely result in more and more people outliving their ability to drive. How will these people satisfy their mobility and accessibility needs? In addition, we argue that conventional household travel surveys do not capture information about people visiting older friends and relatives. This is a form of multi-agent delivery of mobility and accessibility to the elderly without having them leave home. The observed reduction in the mobility of older people therefore may indeed be misleading, given that other agents provide the benefits of mobility through visiting the elderly. This raises some fundamental questions about the way that we should be capturing the mobility and accessibility profiles of the elderly, who may not be so socially isolated, as often suggested by person-specific trip data. Language: en