Evaluating the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the older adults’ travel mode choices

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To increase the older adults' mobility during the COVID-19 outbreak, providing appropriate conditions for using different transportation modes and organizing transportation facilities for the older adults are essential. Hence, this study aims to evaluate and compare factors affecting the older adults’ travel mode choice to investigate transportation policies for increasing their independent mobility in the post-outbreak that has not been addressed in previous research. METHODOLOGY: The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of Isfahan citizens aged 60 years and over. For interviews based on a structured questionnaire, 453 participants were randomly selected in 15 municipality districts of Isfahan. Multinomial logistic models were used to analyze the data. FINDINGS: The results show that despite the decrease in the average frequency of travels per week, the increase in the share of walking and cycling modes, making shopping and recreational travels on foot, and cycling can indicate the resilience of walking and cycling in critical situations. The results also reveal that active modes have effective roles in the older adults’ mobility in the post-outbreak because they are not subject to traffic restrictions like private vehicles and social constraints and crowd avoidance like public transportation. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Policies such as the proper location of facilities, increasing density and mixing of land uses, landscaping, traffic reduction, increasing ownership of bicycle and tricycle (to eliminate the problems of falling in getting on and off the bicycles), driving training courses for the safe driving, and intersections safety improvement are essential to maintain the older adults' mobility after the outbreak. With more capacity and low occupancy, the public transportation system, high-quality accessibility, and safe routes will also attract the older adults’ travels in the crisis.