Benchmarking Accessibility for Elderly Persons

One of the principal rationales for accessibility planning in the UK is the reduction of transport-related social exclusion. This paper is concerned with an examination of the relevance of the indicators suggested by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) in their Guidance on Accessibility Planning in Local Transport Plans (DfT 2005) and the possibility of providing accessibility benchmarks against which the success of policies can be assessed. The paper reports on research undertaken as part of an EPSRC funded project - AUNT-SUE (Accessibility and User Needs in Transport for Sustainable Urban Environments). The paper starts with an analysis of the journey characteristics of older people and then considers the extent to which the DfTs suggested indicators reflect the types and characteristics of journeys likely to be important to these groups. The paper also reports on the results of a panel survey on travel expectations. The paper then proposes provisional benchmarks, based on an analysis of journey patterns and focus group discussions.