Transport and older people: integrating transport planning tools with user needs

There is a substantial body of literature to suggest that older people suffer more than most from poor public transport and a badly maintained transport infrastructure (Metz 2000, Banister and Bowling, 2004). This paper reports on a study which brings together health promotion professionals, transport planners and older people to understand these issues. A series of focus groups were used to establish the key travel behaviours and issues encountered by a sample of older travelers. The extent to which current transport planning processes identify and reduce these barriers was established through a series of accompanied walks with older people followed by discussions with the local authority engineers and by the application of a GIS tool for assessing accessibility by public transport to key facilities. The paper concludes by identifying the extent to which planning processes for older people can be improved.