Prelims

Half Title Page

Transport, Travel and Later Life

Series Page

Transport and Sustainability

Series Editors: Stephen Ison and Jon Shaw

Recent Volumes:

Title Page

Transport and Sustainability Volume 10

Transport, Travel and Later Life

Edited By

Charles Musselwhite

Swansea University, Wales, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2018

Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78714-624-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78714-623-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78714-998-4 (Epub)

ISSN: 2044-9941 (Series)

Dedication

For all those who inspire me I’ve had the pleasure to work with and especially for my daily inspirers William, Art and Claire and also my mum and dad.

Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Editor

Dr Charles Musselwhite is Associate Professor in Gerontology at the Centre for Innovative Ageing (CIA) at Swansea University and heads-up the groups Environments and Ageing research strand. He is Operational Director of the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research (CADR) programme, an initiative to develop and enhance research, policy and practice for older people across Wales. Prior to joining Swansea he was Senior Lecturer in Traffic and Transport Psychology at University West of England’s Centre for Transport & Society between 2006 and 2013. He completed his PhD at the Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton in 2004. His research interests involve ageing, travel and transport, and he has run research projects for various funders addressing the (1) road user safety and ageing; (2) older people, travel behaviour change and health and wellbeing; (3) giving-up driving for later life and; (4) attitudes to transport and travel. Charles has advised the United Kingdom (UK) parliament on older people’s transport issues and is an Executive committee member of the British Society of Gerontology (BSG), where he is editor of their journal, Generations Review. He has appeared on BBC TV and internationally across radio stations discussing his research. Charles is an Associate Editor for Journal of Transport & Health and for the Ageing and Society journal.

About the Authors

Maria Attard is Head of Geography and Director of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the University of Malta. She specialises in urban transport, policy and project implementation. Between 2002 and 2009, she served as a consultant to Government on transport strategy and policy. She was involved in major transport projects in the islands and implemented road pricing, park and ride and pedestrianisation projects in Valletta. She studied at the University of Malta and completed her PhD in 2006 at UCL (London) and has published in the areas of urban transport policy, GIS and human geography. She has recently co-edited a book on Sustainable Urban Transport (published by Emerald) and journal special issues on urban transport policy. Maria is currently the co-chair of NECTAR Cluster 2 and co-chair of SIG G3 and Steering Committee member of the WCTRS. She is co-editor of the journal Research in Transportation Business and Management and co-editor of the Emerald Book Series on Transport and Sustainability.

Kiron Chatterjee is Associate Professor in Travel Behaviour at the Centre for Transport & Society at UWE Bristol. Kiron’s research seeks understanding of the way in which people travel and how this is influenced by the transport system and social, economic and technological change. He has a particular interest in using longitudinal data to understand changing travel behaviour over the life course and has pioneered the use of biographical data collection methods. Current research is investigating how commuting influences personal wellbeing, reasons for the declining car use of young adults and the design, implementation and evaluation of sustainable transport interventions.

Hebba Haddad is an environmental psychologist at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. Between her MSc and PhD, she worked as a research associate for four years at the Centre for Transport & Society, University of the West of England, Bristol where she worked on projects funded by the EPSRC, BBSRC, and the DfT. Her PhD was funded by the ESRC and the Met Office and looked at climate change communication. Broadly, her research uses mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research methods, to better understand the psychological and social dimensions of transport and environment issues. Hebba’s current research is investigating how new technologies (such as air quality sensors and phone apps) may have in changing travel behaviour and engaging the public with the topic of air pollution.

Stephen Ison is Professor of Transport Policy within the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University. He has published widely in the area of transport policy and economics and has edited, authored or co-authored 10 books and 120 peer reviewed Journal papers. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the World Conference on Transport Research, editor of the Journal of Research in Transportation, Business and Management [Elsevier] and Book Series Editor of Transport and Sustainability [Emerald].

Heather Jones was a Research Associate on Cycle Boom. She came to the project having worked in Public Health for the NHS, in consultancy as a health specialist on regeneration projects and had most recently completed a PhD using biographical methods to understand individual development of walking and cycling behaviour through the life course. Heather is currently training to be a nurse.

Tim Jones is Reader in Urban Mobility at the Faculty of Technology Design and Environment at Oxford Brookes University. Tim’s research focuses on how the social, cultural and physical environment can support and promote healthy and sustainable urban mobility. He is particularly interested in how the combination of methodological approaches can reveal the physical, social, and cultural factors that influence everyday travel decisions and how this affects journey practice and experience. Tim was Principal Investigator for the EPSRC cycle BOOM study.

Roger Mackett is Emeritus Professor of Transport Studies at University College London. He has researched into various aspects of transport policy including ways of overcoming the barriers to access for older and disabled people, the use of the car for short trips, the effects of car use on children’s lives and the impact of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway on levels of walking and cycling. He chairs the Transport Working Group of the Age Action Alliance and is a member of the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) and chairs DPTAC’s Research and Evidence Group. He is also a member of the U.S. Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility. He has published articles in academic journals about the benefits of improving accessibility for older people, assessing the success of the policy of concessionary bus travel for older people in Britain and the health implications of inequalities in travel.

David Metz is honorary professor in the Centre for Transport Studies, University College London, where his research focuses on how demographic and technological factors influence travel demand. He spent part of his career as a senior civil servant in a number of UK government departments, both as policy advisor and scientist, including 5 years as Chief Scientist at the Department of Transport. He has a particular interest in ageing, co-authoring the book ‘Older richer fitter: identifying the customer needs of Britain’s ageing population’ published in 2005. He has been visiting professor at the Centre for Ageing and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His recent research has been summarised in a short book entitled ‘Transport Fast or Smart?’ published in 2016.

Deborah Mifsud is a current PhD candidate within the Department of Geography at the University of Malta. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Geography and a Master of Science in Sustainable Development, both obtained from the University of Malta. Her specialisation area is transport mobility and travel behaviour of older people. Her PhD deals with understanding the determinants of travel behaviour for the older population in Malta. She is also a Research Support Officer I at the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development. Her PhD supervisors are Prof Maria Attard from the University of Malta and Prof Stephen Ison from Loughborough University.

C. G. B. (Kit) Mitchell is an aeronautical engineer by training, Dr Mitchell worked at the Road Research Laboratory/Transport and Road Research Laboratory/Transport Research Laboratory from 1970 to 1994, working on public transport, transport planning and the social effects of transport policies. From 1982 he was Head of the Environment Division. From the early 1980s he also ran TRRL’s research on transport for disabled people and led the group that drafted the first DPTAC specification for local buses in 1988. He co-chaired the U.S. Transportation Research Board Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility 2003–09 and is an Emeritus Member of TRB. In 2010, he produced a review of research on older drivers for the RAC Foundation. He was a member of the Road Safety Foundation’s Older Driver Task Force which reported in 2016, leading the Working Group that provided evidence to support the work of the Task Force. He also serves on the Hampshire Older Driver Forum, which coordinates police and road safety activities to support older drivers.

Ben Spencer is a Research Fellow in the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University, with a background in Urban Design, Health and Wellbeing, Mobility and Gerontology. He has experience of mixed-methods research with a particular interest in mobile methods applied to walking and cycling. Following his PhD on Playful public places for later life Ben worked on the RCUK cross-council funded cycle BOOM project on older people’s cycling before moving on to the Healthy Urban Mobility project. This aims to understand the impact of everyday (im)mobility on health and wellbeing with a variety of social groups living in different neighbourhoods in Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Preface

Ageing societies are almost a universal phenomenon due to a combination of falling fertility rates and substantial increases in life expectancy. Not only are there increasing numbers of older people but we are creating a fitter, more aspirational group of people ageing than ever before. An ageing population who may still be working, have caring responsibilities (for other older people, for children or grandchildren, for example) and social and recreational networks that span over wide geographical distances. Coupled to this, we have a growing hypermobile society, one designed around the car where services, shops and family and friend connections are more dispersed than ever meaning older people more dependent on vehicles than ever before (see Chapters 2 and 4). The result is a large increase in older drivers and a large increase in mileage driven by older drivers. Unsurprisingly, much evidence suggests being mobile in old age is linked to quality of life and in particular, giving-up driving has repeatedly been shown to related to lead to a decrease in wellbeing, an increase in depression and related health problems, feelings of stress, isolation and increased mortality.

We need to ask are older drivers safe? The stereotype of older driver is one that is dangerous, has poor reactions, poor eyesight, drives over cautiously and slowly and can’t cope with demands of modern busy traffic. There are calls for older drivers to be tested regularly or at least have training to help them improve. But research suggests that in countries with more stringent testing, older people have no fewer collisions than in countries with more relaxed rules (see Chapters 2 and 9). While training and education might improve knowledge and attitudes toward driving and improve some specific sets of driving skills, no research has yet be found that suggests it makes any difference to road collisions for older drivers (see Chapters 2, 8 and 9).There is a need to take a step back. Are older drivers actually really that unsafe at all? Statistics suggest those killed or seriously injured do increase in number (especially per mile driven) but studies into fragility and frailty suggest this may be an explanation for increases; older people are more likely to be a casualty of their collision because of their susceptibility to injury (see Kit Mitchell’s excellent analysis in Chapter 2).

There is a need to help older people think about alternative transport at an earlier stage in their life. For example, those who are successful at giving-up driving (i.e. those with little to no pain after giving-up driving) are those who have planned to give-up driving and begin to use alternative transport before it becomes a necessity to do so. Providing suitable alternative transport is also crucial to this, taking into account a proper analysis of the needs of older people (Chapters 3 and 4). Chapters 5, 6 and 7 show what can be done in terms of transport provision but also in terms of the public realm to keep people connected without using a car.

And what about the future? We are constantly reminded about increased automation in transport, not less the driverless car. Naturally, this will suit older people unable to drive but wanting the freedom and independence the car can give. But what about our journey to getting to the driverless car? Can changes in society, virtual reality (Chapter 10), the sharing economy, improvements in real time personalised information, better more comfortable and accessible mobility (Chapter 11) mean driverless cars may not ever actually be needed?

Hope you enjoy the read and let’s make transport and mobility great for us all as we age.