Overview
Addressing the needs of older people in the development of future transportation concepts in Europe is an important issue. However, there are no systematic studies available, which provide a complete picture of what has already been done to address the mobility-related needs of the elderly. Such a systematic study could be used to create an Action Plan for future steps in addressing the needs of an ageing society in mobility and transportation.
With TRACY, we seek to provide a systematic and comprehensive study of current activity, and use the results of this study to analyse the present situation, identify research gaps and contribute towards a strategy to tackle the challenge of transport in an ageing society.
In the context of the need to contribute to a better understanding of the requirements to properly address elderly mobility, our overarching aim is to develop an Action Plan outlining means of proceeding to achieve excellence in transport for an ageing society, on the basis of a detailed analysis of a comprehensive dataset.
This Action Plan will include guidelines, requirements and specifications to promote safe and adequate usage of all passenger land transport modes for older people. Recommendations will be made in the form of specific research topics for European and national RTD programmes.
In our concept we pay special attention to the gendered nature of the issue at hand, as well as to human factors such as geographical and cultural or welfare differences, and possible conflicts between social and other aspects of sustainability (e.g. environmental).
This objectives will be achieved by document review and synthesis completed by Interviews with European national transport authorities,followed by an critical analysis of the mobility needs and practices of elderly people and the assessment of the effectiveness of current policies. One significant output is the bigger picture of transport in an ageing society.
Funding
Results
The future of transport for the elderly
When it comes to future mobility for the elderly, their needs are often overlooked. This is compounded by the fact that there are no current studies to address the issue, so improving the situation and looking into changing the future needs to be addressed.
The EU-funded 'Transport needs for an ageing society' (TRACY) project aims to present a complete picture and evaluation of present national strategies and policies dealing with this issue, while also identifying research gaps and making recommendations for the future.
But first, a comprehensive study is needed to establish an overview of policies and practical issues relating to transport needs for the elderly. This requires data from countries under consideration for the project: 27 European Union Member States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States of America.
The analysis is structured around themes that address technical issues, including safety, infrastructure needs and transport systems, and human factors like gender, special needs and human-machine interfaces. It also considers diversity, incorporating cultural, welfare, political, geographical and regional differences, and alternative approaches such as accessibility, virtual mobility and mobile services.
The report gives insights into the demographic trends and it forecasts and summarises key transport characteristics. In addition, populations in the majority of the countries were found to be ageing, which signals the need for change in the demands placed on the transport system. It also highlighted the countries where car dependency is more prevalent.
Current literature relevant to older people and transport was also reviewed for the positives and negatives of each mode of transport from different perspectives. This research will provide an invaluable resource for the next stage of the project, which requires a more detailed analysis of the policies and programmes already identified, but on a much broader scale. These include virtual mobile services, road safety, development planning and research into demographic change.
These aspects will be considered when looking at the social, economic and environmental impacts. It will present a comprehensive overview of how effective current policies are and for identifying the research gaps.
Following on from this, an action plan will be developed along with guidelines on current policy and practice in relation to transport and mobility needs for an ageing society.