Citation

Hahn JS, Kim HC, Kim JK, Ulfarsson GF. J. Transp. Geogr. 2016; 57: 55-62.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.09.010

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Korea is experiencing a rapid increase in the number and proportion of the older population aged 65 and older. This study investigated personal and household characteristics affecting trip making of older adults (65 years and older) using data from the 2010 Household Travel Survey in Seoul. It was tested if the effects of characteristics were the same for the 65+ and the under 65 groups, and if the effects for older adults were the same for the 65-74 and the 75+ groups. Trips were also classified into mandatory and discretionary trips and models estimated for the 65+ group for those two trip purposes. The investigation was done with a heteroskedastic ordered logit model to account for age differences in unobserved variance.

The analysis showed that the effects of personal and household characteristics on trip making varied significantly between the under 65 and 65+ groups, and between those 65-74 and those 75+. This further confirms the risk of viewing all older adults as similar to each other or to younger individuals. The study found heteroskedasticity due to age for the youngest (under 41) and the oldest (75+) groups but not for those 41-64-years-old.

Specific results showed that men 65 or older have a lower probability of making more trips than women, especially mandatory trips, suggesting transportation policy needs to consider the genders differently. Having a driver's license and an automobile was linked to more trips for those 65-74 and for mandatory trips but not for those 75+ and not for discretionary trips of those 65+. Higher income was linked to more trips for older adults, especially mandatory trips.

The results show the development of transport policies needs to consider the variance among the aged, such as gender, income, driving licensure and automobile ownership.

Language: en