IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/jtralu/0016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Access to Public Transit and Its Influence on Ridership for Older Adults in Two U.S. Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Baldwin Hess, Daniel

    (University at Buffalo, State University of New York; United States)

Abstract

Growth in the population of older adults (age 60 and above) in coming years will challenge urban planners and transportation managers to provide travel options that support autonomy. To investigate barriers that older adults experience in using public transit, this research explores associations between older adults who do and do not ride fixed-route public transit and their neighborhood walking access to buses and trains. The research tests whether or not the distance between a trip origin or destination and a transit stop or station is a significant factor in predicting frequency of transit ridership. Data from a survey of older adults in California and New York is used to regress older adults’ frequency of riding public transit against explanatory variables, including demographic and socioeconomic variables, access and mobility measures, and neighborhood characteristics. Findings suggest that self-reported walking distance to transit has a statistically significant influence—in San José, California, but not in Buffalo, New York—in predicting transit ridership frequency. Drivers are more sensitive to walking distance than nondrivers. Models estimate that in San José, each additional five minutes in perceived walking time to transit decreases transit ridership frequency by five percent for nondrivers and by 25 percent for drivers. Older adults are likely to ride transit more often if they are male, nonwhite, and low income.

Suggested Citation

  • Baldwin Hess, Daniel, 2009. "Access to Public Transit and Its Influence on Ridership for Older Adults in Two U.S. Cities," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 2(1), pages 3-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:jtralu:0016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/11/39
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Baldwin Hess & Tangerine Maria Almeida, 2007. "Impact of Proximity to Light Rail Rapid Transit on Station-area Property Values in Buffalo, New York," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(5-6), pages 1041-1068, May.
    2. Alsnih, Rahaf & Hensher, David A., 2003. "The mobility and accessibility expectations of seniors in an aging population," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 903-916, December.
    3. John Holtzclaw & Robert Clear & Hank Dittmar & David Goldstein & Peter Haas, 2002. "Location Efficiency: Neighborhood and Socio-Economic Characteristics Determine Auto Ownership and Use - Studies in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 1-27, January.
    4. M.E. Beesley & J.F. Kain, 1964. "Urban Form, Car Ownership and Public Policy: an Appraisal of Traffic in Towns," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 1(2), pages 174-203, November.
    5. Susan Handy & Kelly Clifton, 2001. "Local shopping as a strategy for reducing automobile travel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 317-346, November.
    6. Sara Wilcox & Melissa Bopp & Larissa Oberrecht & Sandra K. Kammermann & Charles T. McElmurray, 2003. "Psychosocial and Perceived Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity in Rural and Older African American and White Women," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(6), pages 329-337.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhat, Chandra R. & Guo, Jessica Y., 2007. "A comprehensive analysis of built environment characteristics on household residential choice and auto ownership levels," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 506-526, June.
    2. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Baker, Douglas & Washington, Simon & Turrell, Gavin, 2013. "Residential dissonance and mode choice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 12-28.
    3. Li, Jingjing & Kim, Changjoo & Sang, Sunhee, 2018. "Exploring impacts of land use characteristics in residential neighborhood and activity space on non-work travel behaviors," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 141-147.
    4. Cornelis Dirk van Goeverden, 2021. "The value of travel speed," Papers 2106.06599, arXiv.org.
    5. Su, Rongxiang & Xiao, Jingyi & McBride, Elizabeth C. & Goulias, Konstadinos G., 2021. "Understanding senior's daily mobility patterns in California using human mobility motifs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Vance, Colin & Procher, Vivien, 2013. "Who Does the Shopping? German time-use evidence, 1996-2009," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 2357, pages 125-133.
    7. Jaroslav Burian & Lenka Zajíčková & Igor Ivan & Karel Macků, 2018. "Attitudes and Motivation to Use Public or Individual Transport: A Case Study of Two Middle-Sized Cities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-25, May.
    8. Deka, Devajyoti, 2012. "The impacts of non-resident parking restrictions at commuter rail stations," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 451-461.
    9. Wang, Xiaoquan & Yin, Chaoying & Zhang, Junyi & Shao, Chunfu & Wang, Shengyou, 2021. "Nonlinear effects of residential and workplace built environment on car dependence," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    10. Guthrie, Andrew & Fan, Yingling, 2016. "Developers' perspectives on transit-oriented development," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 103-114.
    11. Hiroaki Sandoh & Risa Suzuki, 2015. "Large-Scaled Chain Stores versus Small-Scaled Local Stores of the Local Production for Local Consumption," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-16-Rev.3, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised Sep 2015.
    12. Schmöcker, Jan-Dirk & Quddus, Mohammed A. & Noland, Robert B. & Bell, Michael G.H., 2008. "Mode choice of older and disabled people: a case study of shopping trips in London," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 257-267.
    13. Md. Kamruzzaman & Simon Washington & Douglas Baker & Wendy Brown & Billie Giles-Corti & Gavin Turrell, 2016. "Built environment impacts on walking for transport in Brisbane, Australia," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 53-77, January.
    14. Xuefeng Li & Yong Zhang & Mingyang Du, 2018. "Analysis of Travel Decision-Making for Urban Elderly Healthcare Activities under Temporal and Spatial Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    15. Susilo, Yusak O. & Williams, Katie & Lindsay, Morag & Dair, Carol, 2012. "The influence of individuals’ environmental attitudes and urban design features on their travel patterns in sustainable neighborhoods in the UK," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:1, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    16. Ranković Plazinić, Biljana & Jović, Jadranka, 2018. "Mobility and transport potential of elderly in differently accessible rural areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 169-180.
    17. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Pietrostefani, Elisabetta, 2019. "The economic effects of density: A synthesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 93-107.
    18. Pilgram, Clemens A. & West, Sarah E., 2018. "Fading premiums: The effect of light rail on residential property values in Minneapolis, Minnesota," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-10.
    19. Deka, Devajyoti, 2014. "The role of household members in transporting adults with disabilities in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 45-57.
    20. Stanley, Janet & Vella-Brodrick, Dianne, 2009. "The usefulness of social exclusion to inform social policy in transport," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 90-96, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    older adults; elderly; senior citizens; public transit; access; walking; physical activity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:jtralu:0016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Arlene Mathison (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ctumnus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.