The National Strategic Policy for Active Ageing 2014-2020, published late last November, highlights the importance of inclusion and equity for elderly people in society. One of the main pillars of this strategy is independent living.
The policy shows how lack of access and participation often leads to social exclusion among the elderly. For this reason, whether old people are within the community or in elderly homes, their autonomy should always be encouraged. Yet, how can there be independent living without accessible and reliable transport services? Are the current transport services providing the necessary mobility for elderly people, particularly non-drivers?
A recent study conducted as part of a Master of science in sustainable development at the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development of the University of Malta, highlighted the importance of public transport accessibility for the elderly population. It analysed whether the public transport system is providing effective and efficient mobility for the elderly, using the town of Luqa as case study.
Public transport accessibility is one of the important equity issues in the transport sector as there has and will always be a segment of the population that is totally dependent on public transport.
The study confirmed that only 36 per cent of the elderly population in Luqa were in possession of a driving licence. Sixty six per cent of the elderly not possessing a driving licence were weekly-bus users. Despite this, the elderly population studied in this research was quite mobile and travelled regularly for shopping and medical care. The journeys were made mainly on foot or by car.
A strong relationship was found between the use of the bus for medical purposes and females.
Elderly persons will not be able to fully participate in society without efficient transport services and accessibility
The research established that the three main determinants affecting public transport use among the elderly people in Luqa were age, health condition and car availability.
Despite proximity to a bus stop being generally perceived to be an important element of bus use, statistical and spatial analysis carried out as part of the study confirmed that, in Luqa, elderly use of the bus service was not influenced by proximity to a bus stop.
In order to analyse this, network analysis in GIS (geographic information systems) was used. The study showed how the highest percentage of elderly people fell within the 200-metre service area of a bus stop.
Seventy two per cent of the elderly population in Luqa identified a number of barriers when using public transport.
The two most common barriers were long waiting times followed by high criticism on the bus stops’ infrastructure and comfort.
Other problems identified by elderly were punctuality, the lack of accessibility, non-updated and inaccessible travel information, lack of safety, fear to travel alone and inappropriate driver behaviour.
The study also showed that the public transport system offers poor temporal accessibility to medical care from Luqa to Mater Dei Hospital. All routes within this origin and destination exceeded the desired time allocation of 30 minutes.
The shortest route analysed in this study was 117 with an average travel time of 36.7 minutes and the longest was X4/210, which exceeded the one-hour travel time. This included long waiting times at the Marsa park and ride interchange. This study was the first to tackle elderly mobility and accessibility of public transport services in Malta.
It is essential for policymakers and planners to target the issue of independent living by also taking into consideration the transport and mobility needs of elderly people.
Elderly persons will not be able to fully participate in society without efficient transport services and accessibility.
The needs of old people are not so different from those of the rest of the population. They just become more critical with age. Hence, helping old people to meet their mobility needs makes society more equal and, therefore, more sustainable.
A detailed article based on this research was published on Xjenza Online (the journal of Malta Chamber of Scientists) and is available online at http://www.xjenza.com/ .
Deborah Mifsud is research officer at the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development.