Population ageing, gender and the transportation system

Abstract

Across the globe population structures are aging and how older men and women interact with the transport system is increasingly important in maintaining a good quality of life and inclusion in society. The paper reviews three issues: the nature of older people’s interaction with the transport system by gender; older people’s attitude to travel; and the involvement of older people as road traffic casualties. Patterns of travel in the UK show that older people are heavily dependent on car use, but in the form of more frequent but shorter journeys than younger people. This is especially so for women over 70 years old who, as passengers, are very reliant on males to drive them. Attitudes suggest that there are few obstacles to public transport use, and most agree that bus travel is good, but convenience means many prefer cars. Involvement of older men and women in serious road traffic accidents show that they have lower killed and seriously injured (KSI) rates than 17-24 year old drivers. However, those aged over 70 years exhibit a trend to increasing KSI rates. Analysis of casualty rates of drivers by type of junction, manoeuvre and environmental conditions found that some gender-age groups are overrepresented in certain accident types, including over twice higher serious accidents rates for men, but over representation of older women when driving in poor conditions and turning right and negotiating roundabouts, crossroads and T, Y and staggered junctions. Improvement in engineering design and driver training are suggested together with the need for a greater understanding of the transportation system needs of old and vey old people.