Public Transport Used by People of Advanced Age

Abstract

Background: Both New Zealand M?ori and non-Maori males were most notable in the number who did not make use of public transport in the last twelve months.

Method: Transport subsection of the LiLAC study provided the question area for analysis. Enquiry focused on whether older people had travelled on public transport in the last twelve months, how often they made use of the service and why they did not employ such facility. Methods of analysis included binomial logistic regression, Mann-Whitney U test, regression analysis and descriptive analysis.

Results: Participants totaled 931 with 421 New Zealand Maori and 510 New Zealand Maori non-Maori.

New Zealand Maori: The greater majority of New Zealand Maori signified that they did not use public transport. Of those that did, it was the females either on their own or with some difficulty. Of those that had engaged the service, (83-88 years), it was only once a week. Reasons given for not using public transport comprised primarily revolved around personal choice and knowledge of possible facilities. Other reasons given included continued use of a car, again not wanting to, no available facilities, family, health and the use of other methods of transportation.

New Zealand non-Maori: A significant number of male New Zealand non-Maori indicated that had not used the service in the last twelve months. Although of those that did, a comparable number of both male and female non-Maori had similarly either completed the journey on their own or with difficulty. When asked how often they used the service, the majority indicated that they did not. Reasons being routes either not going where respondents wanted or needed to go; and females expressing concern about accessible bus stops or were inconvenient to use.

Conclusion: National and/or local government have the opportunity to make improvements in route design, scheduling and diversity in type of bus being made available with the present and future growth of the older population. Also, in line with future developments such authorities could similarly work in conjunction with other providers such as service groups like Lions and Rotary; Retired Serviceman/women Association, Workingmen’s Clubs, Age Concern, Driving Miss Daisy, private organisations, taxi firms, or the provision of Uber sharing, in considering the type and style of public transport being made available to the public.