Äldres resvanor: äldre trafikanter som heterogen grupp och framtida forskningsbehov

Older age groups travel less than middle age groups, but older people´s travel has increased during time, mostly due to more car driving. The objective of this report is to present an overview of important findings on older people´s travel habits as well as to discuss how research on travel habits has dealt with the issue of the heterogeneity of the older population. The overview is based on the results from a number of research projects from 2008 and on where VTI has been or is involved, as well as complementing selective literature searches. Cross sectional studies is an important basis in order to illustrate how older age groups travel less than age groups in the middle age. This concerns average travel time, travel distance and amount of trips. This pattern is stabile in most industrialized countries. Not all types of travel decreases. Trips for shopping, leisure and social activities continues to be as common as before in age groups near the retirement age. The report also describes the recent development in research trying to capture the heterogeneity in the older population. We describe studies based on socio demographic variables as well as a recent trend in constructing new categories of older road users based on travel patterns. Moreover, a recent development focusing on life course related transitions affecting mobility is described. The report identifies a number of research needs in the field of older people’s travel habits and finally discusses on what grounds it is relevant to distinguish older people as a separate category when the heterogeneity of the group is emphasized.