Abstract
The rapid aging of the population has posed significant challenges to society and raised new demand for transportation services. Understanding travel needs of the elderly is crucial to making effective strategies for accommodating their demand in many newly motorized cities in developing countries such as China. Using a Markov-chain-based mixture model, we identify two main activity patterns of the elderly: recreation-shopping-oriented (RS-oriented) pattern and schooling-drop-off/pick-up-oriented (SDP-oriented) pattern. Elderly people in the RS-oriented pattern enjoy a cozy life with much time spent on recreation and shopping activities, while those in the SDP-oriented pattern take responsibility of sending grandchildren to school and taking them back home. The RS-oriented elderly people are faced with spatial constraints to access the sparsely distributed recreational sights; however, the SDP-oriented group is subject to temporal constraints when making daily trips. These results would encourage policy makers to reconsider the role of transportation in aged people’s lives and better accommodate their demand through designing safer walking and cycling environment and improving the quality of transit services.
Highlights
The aging of the population is a growing concern in many countries, including both developed and developing ones
The contributions lie in three main aspects: (a) we successfully separate the main activity patterns based on daily routine arrangement of travel among the elderly using an MC-based mixture model; (b) we attach importance to schooling drop-offs and pick-ups which are generally ignored by existing studies, and make comparative analyses with other activity patterns; (c) we make policy suggestions based on research findings to improve transportation services for the elderly
Based on Nanjing household travel survey data, we identified two main activity patterns of the elderly using the Markov-chain-based mixture model
Summary
The aging of the population is a growing concern in many countries, including both developed and developing ones. Elderly people living with their adult children are likely to take the responsibility of childcare, such as sending children to school and taking them back home [4]. These characteristics have not been adequately studied in empirical studies. The contributions lie in three main aspects: (a) we successfully separate the main activity patterns based on daily routine arrangement of travel among the elderly using an MC-based mixture model; (b) we attach importance to schooling drop-offs and pick-ups which are generally ignored by existing studies, and make comparative analyses with other activity patterns; (c) we make policy suggestions based on research findings to improve transportation services for the elderly. The final section summarizes the findings and highlights future research directions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
