1. Home
  2. TRID
  3. View Record
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

THE NEED FOR TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES FOR THE RURAL ELDERLY

The objectives of this project were: (1) to document the transportation patterns of the rural elderly in a target area that included six counties in southern Iowa and three adjacent counties in northern Missouri; (2) to identify the potential need for alternative transportation services; and (3) to develop transportation alternatives and consider their viability. A survey of a selected sample of elderly residents in the target area revealed that elderly residents are fully dependent upon a means of transportation to secure essential goods and services and to assure their continued level of social interaction essential to maintaining their psychological well being. The automobile is the mode used for the overwhelming majority of trips. For most trips there has been no alternative. The existing rural transit systems provide for basic food and medical trips, for a specific segment of the very elderly population, but not discretionary trips for the independently minded older residents. In the few towns where demand-responsive transportation is available it is heavily used, indicating the interest in such a system. Both a rural jitney service with a paid driver and a volunteer driver program were identified as possible alternatives. They were assessed in terms of: responsiveness to the residents, furtherance of the objective of reducing exposure to accidents involving elderly drivers, and efficiency of start up and operation. Minimizing costs was a major factor in the analysis. Hence the type of shared ride jitney system examined had only one car and one driver per county. A marketing system would be necessary to attract elderly riders. Such a marketing system would have to be informal and rely on information sharing as the media and news reports are not appealing to the elderly who get information from a fairly narrow set of friends and associates and even rely on them for validaiton of television or newspaper advertising.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Midwest Transportation Consortium

    Iowa State University, 2711 South Loop Drive, Suite 4700
    Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664
  • Authors:
    • Kihl, M
    • Goudy, W
    • Mahayni, R
  • Publication Date: 1990-10

Media Info

  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 102 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00607614
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Apr 30 1991 12:00AM