Some Insights into the Key Influences on Trip-Chaining Activity and Public Transport Use of Seniors and the Elderly

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we use a pooled (2002–2004) cross section of the Sydney Household Travel Survey, an annual continuous survey conducted since 1997, to investigate the current profile of trip-chaining travel activity of individuals over 64 years of age (i.e., seniors). A nested logit model is developed to investigate the choices made between six trip-chain categories, distinguished by the level of “complexity” and the primary mode—car as driver, car as passenger, and public transport. A benchmark setting for today not only establishes the way in which the elderly “cope” with the existing supply network and the available modal alternatives, given their needs, but also is useful in providing hints about what might be some emerging transport policy and planning challenges in the future given the aging of the population. The key influences on the trip chain and modal behavior of individuals over the age of 64, by gender, is currency of a driver's license, living with a partner, and the specific age range over 64 years. The loss of a driver's license and a partner have the potential to be major contributors to social isolation in the absence of inadequate flexible public transport and/or support mechanisms that enable access to the car as a passenger.