Public transport policy measures for improving elderly mobility

Abstract

Population aging is happening in most of the world's metropolitan cities, and the proportion of elderly adults is predicted to increase significantly in the coming decades. This rapid growth of elderly populations may lead to serious transport issues when their mobility is compromised by the unavailability of public transport services. Public transport concession fare schemes are commonly implemented in many cities to encourage the elderly's participation in social activities. However, these policies emphasize the role of money (i.e., travel fares) in determining willingness to travel. Other possible factors, such as walking distance to and from stops and stations, wait times for public transport services, and seat availability, have not been considered by transport operators and policy makers. In this study, we interviewed 613 elderly Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above regarding their travel decisions using designated modes of public transport to attend social activities in four hypothetical games. A total of 2,452 observations were collected for model development. Binary logistic regression models were calibrated to determine which factors significantly influenced the elderly's travel decisions. Based on the model results, this paper suggests policy measures to strengthen public transport planning in Hong Kong with the goal of improving elderly mobility. The findings provide policy insights that can also be applied to other metropolitan cities with similar traffic conditions.

Measuring the potential emission reductions from a shift towards public transport

“…The results from this research were accordingly also considered when devising the policy incentives included in the study presented in this paper. Wong et al (2018) examined the issue of population aging in metropolitan areas such as Hong Kong, and the role that policy can play in considering the interests of elderly mobility. A stated preference survey was conducted to investigate travel decision making of the elderly, which was analysed by means of a binary logistic regression model.…”

“…This model identified the explanatory variables that influence trip making behaviour of elderly people for social trip purposes. The attributes considered in the experiment were travel fares, walking and wait times and seat availability, of which the results produced from the model showed that a higher travel fare and longer wait and walk times negatively influenced the elderly's willingness to travel (Wong et al, 2018), while the availability of seats had a positive effect on the likelihood of making a trip. Other noteworthy findings from this study were that seat availability and trip cost were found to be of higher statistical significance to the elderly travelling by bus rather than by rail, which supported the extension of a bus fare concession in Hong Kong.…”

“…Other noteworthy findings from this study were that seat availability and trip cost were found to be of higher statistical significance to the elderly travelling by bus rather than by rail, which supported the extension of a bus fare concession in Hong Kong. The overall policy recommendation made by the authors was for the provision of priority seats for the elderly, a targeting of public transport concessions for those aged 60-64 and to waive fares for those aged 80 or more (Wong et al, 2018). However, in order to incorporate the full selection of public transport modes available in Hong Kong into the experiment, the authors acknowledged that an MNL model would be a more suitable tool to inspect more valuable metrics such as mode shares and the socio demographic characteristics of modal choice.…”

Willing to pay more for high-quality schools?

“…There are two possible explanations. Firstly, different age cohorts have differing needs and preferences of services, for example health care services (Wong et al, 2018). Normally, young adults seldom go to hospital, so they may not consider proximity to hospitals when making residential location decisions, even tend to live far away from hospitals.…”

What Influences the Choice Between Private Car and Public Transport for Shopping Trips? Impact of Socio-economic and Built Environment Factors

“…Binary logistic regression has been commonly used to forecast the probability of choice decisions from two alternatives for individuals based on utility maximization in the context of transport behavioral studies [56][57][58][59]. In this study, a binary model was applied to identify and investigate the major determinants of the choice between private car and public transport during shopping trips in Shenyang.…”