Cargando…

A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety

BACKGROUND: With an ever increasing population of older adults (65+ years) in the USA, a better understanding of this population’s travel patterns is needed to improve travel mobility and transportation safety. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we described the travel patterns of older adults in the USA dur...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shen, Sijun, Koech, Wilson, Feng, Jing, Rice, Thomas M, Zhu, Motao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5629646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28801408
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015780
_version_ 1783269086415814656
author Shen, Sijun
Koech, Wilson
Feng, Jing
Rice, Thomas M
Zhu, Motao
author_facet Shen, Sijun
Koech, Wilson
Feng, Jing
Rice, Thomas M
Zhu, Motao
author_sort Shen, Sijun
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: With an ever increasing population of older adults (65+ years) in the USA, a better understanding of this population’s travel patterns is needed to improve travel mobility and transportation safety. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we described the travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015. METHODS: Travel patterns of older adults (65–74 and 75+ years) were compared with younger adults (25–64 years) by frequency and proportion of daily trips. The daily trips of various age groups were estimated using the 2015 American Time Use Survey. RESULTS: The percentage of daily travellers was 88% for adults (25–64 years), 75% for adults (65–74 years) and 68% for adults (75+ years). While the percentage of privately owned vehicle (POV) drivers and average time of driving POVs decreased, the percentage of POV passengers increased as adults aged. Females were less likely to drive POVs and had decreased average daily driving time, but they were more likely to ride in POVs as passengers and had longer average daily riding times than their male counterparts across all age groups. Older adults were more likely to travel in the mornings and early afternoons (from 8:00 to 15:59) while younger adults were more likely to travel in the late afternoons and early evenings (from 16:00 to 19:59). CONCLUSIONS: POV use is the predominant mode of transit in the USA. As adults age, the percentages of daily travellers and POV drivers decrease. This pattern is more apparent among females than males. This study delineated travel patterns of older adults using a 2015 national survey, and the findings facilitate traffic systems designers and policy-makers to develop and implement initiatives to accommodate older adults’ mobility needs and improve traffic safety.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5629646
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56296462017-10-11 A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety Shen, Sijun Koech, Wilson Feng, Jing Rice, Thomas M Zhu, Motao BMJ Open Epidemiology BACKGROUND: With an ever increasing population of older adults (65+ years) in the USA, a better understanding of this population’s travel patterns is needed to improve travel mobility and transportation safety. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we described the travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015. METHODS: Travel patterns of older adults (65–74 and 75+ years) were compared with younger adults (25–64 years) by frequency and proportion of daily trips. The daily trips of various age groups were estimated using the 2015 American Time Use Survey. RESULTS: The percentage of daily travellers was 88% for adults (25–64 years), 75% for adults (65–74 years) and 68% for adults (75+ years). While the percentage of privately owned vehicle (POV) drivers and average time of driving POVs decreased, the percentage of POV passengers increased as adults aged. Females were less likely to drive POVs and had decreased average daily driving time, but they were more likely to ride in POVs as passengers and had longer average daily riding times than their male counterparts across all age groups. Older adults were more likely to travel in the mornings and early afternoons (from 8:00 to 15:59) while younger adults were more likely to travel in the late afternoons and early evenings (from 16:00 to 19:59). CONCLUSIONS: POV use is the predominant mode of transit in the USA. As adults age, the percentages of daily travellers and POV drivers decrease. This pattern is more apparent among females than males. This study delineated travel patterns of older adults using a 2015 national survey, and the findings facilitate traffic systems designers and policy-makers to develop and implement initiatives to accommodate older adults’ mobility needs and improve traffic safety. BMJ Publishing Group 2017-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5629646/ /pubmed/28801408 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015780 Text en © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Epidemiology
Shen, Sijun
Koech, Wilson
Feng, Jing
Rice, Thomas M
Zhu, Motao
A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title_full A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title_fullStr A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title_full_unstemmed A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title_short A cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the USA during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
title_sort cross-sectional study of travel patterns of older adults in the usa during 2015: implications for mobility and traffic safety
topic Epidemiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5629646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28801408
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015780
work_keys_str_mv AT shensijun acrosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT koechwilson acrosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT fengjing acrosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT ricethomasm acrosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT zhumotao acrosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT shensijun crosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT koechwilson crosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT fengjing crosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT ricethomasm crosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety
AT zhumotao crosssectionalstudyoftravelpatternsofolderadultsintheusaduring2015implicationsformobilityandtrafficsafety