Transportation, Quality of Life, and Older Adults

Project Description

California is growing faster and aging more rapidly than America as a whole. California’s population aged 60 years and over is expected to grow more than three times as fast as the total population. Older adults age in place – increasingly in suburban areas where access to transit and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods is limited. Data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey show that people over age 65 made 86 percent of their trips by automobile; 66 percent as drivers. As they age, however, many older adults limit their driving and ultimately lose the ability to drive altogether, affecting their quality of life in old age. This study will explore relationships between aging, travel, mobility and residential relocation using a unique longitudinal data base rarely before used in transportation research, the Health and Retirement Survey, augmented by other measures, such as transit accessibility. It will develop multivariate statistical models to explain changes over four decades in residential and travel patterns as people age and the extent to which those changes are related to quality of life indicators like health and economic wellbeing. The implications for transportation policymakers will be explored.