Effectiveness of Transit Strategies Targeting Elderly People: Survey Results and Preliminary Data Analysis

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has shown that America’s senior population has been growing\nand will almost double by 2030. This trend continues to challenge researchers who are looking to increase seniors’\nawareness or favorable views toward public transportation and researchers who are developing innovative public\ntransportation alternatives for seniors. These alternatives will try to wean seniors from their reliance on cars, while not\ncompromising other transit riders’ safety and comfort. The research team at the University of Illinois at Chicago\nundertook this study as a first step toward meeting this challenge. To collect information on seniors’ travel attributes\nand their opinions about Northeastern Illinois’ public transportation system and potential service alternatives, the\nresearch team developed a comprehensive survey, covering four common trip purposes (doctor visits, shopping trips,\nsocial or recreational travel, and work trips) and various travel modes. These modes included combinations of nonmotorized\ntravel, auto use, and three commonly used public transportation modes (Metra, Pace, and the Chicago\nTransit Authority). The research team tested this survey on a small sample of respondents; modified it to maximize\nthe number of accurate, unbiased responses; and sent it to 2,000 seniors who have resided in one of metropolitan\nChicago’s six counties. Two hundred eighty seniors sent back complete and useful surveys that provided data for this\nstudy. Most of these seniors were unfamiliar with Northeastern Illinois’ public transportation system and did not view it\nas a driving alternative, partly because they view it as more hazardous than driving their own cars and less\nconvenient than getting a ride from friends or family members. To help change these perceptions, the research team\nsuggests that Northeastern Illinois’ public transit operators provide printed timetables and maps on their trains, buses,\nor stations; increase vehicle frequencies; provide real-time arrival information at stations and on cell phones; order\nmore low floor and kneeling buses, clean their stations and vehicles better, and provide shuttle services specifically\ndesigned for seniors.\n

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.