Exploring Patterns of Heterogeneity in Activity-Travel Behaviors of Older People

The travel behavior and mobility needs of the elderly population have been topics of much interest to transport planners and policy makers for a number of reasons. The desire to provide mobility to the elderly even as their capabilities diminish, and the need to recognize their vulnerability when they do attempt to navigate the transportation network on their own, has motivated a rich stream of research dedicated to studying their activity-travel behavior. Many studies in the past, and most travel models to date, consider the elderly as a single market segment of 65 years of age or over. To better understand differences among various subgroups of the elderly population, this paper presents a detailed analysis and comparison of elderly subgroups using data derived from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey of the United States. The paper includes three modeling efforts to understand the differential effects of age on the action space, the use of transportation modes, and the activity participation and time allocation behavior of the elderly. The analysis suggests that there is considerable heterogeneity in the elderly population, which calls for more targeted policy interventions and a more disaggregate treatment in travel models. However, the analysis also reveals that an individual’s medical condition and need for use of medical device are significant explanatory variables affecting all three of the choice dimensions considered in this study. This calls for the development of policies and mobility options that would serve the disabled regardless of age.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB60 Standing Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Hutchinson, Joseph
  • da Silva, Denise Capasso
  • Dias, Felipe F
  • Bhat, Chandra R
  • 0000-0002-0715-8121
  • Khoeini, Sara
  • Pendyala, Ram M
  • Lam, William H K
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Aged; Demographics; Mobility; Persons with disabilities; Population; Transportation modes; Travel behavior
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01697490
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-03074
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM