For older Canadians, maintaining independence and having choices for how they get around are crucial to being able to age in place. While many older adults may choose to continue driving, public transportation, when available, offers a low-cost and flexible alternative that allows them to keep an active lifestyle and maintain social connections.
Merrina Zhang, Senior Research Engineer at the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre, notes that public transport offers more than just a means of travel. It's also an environmentally friendly way of getting around that fosters autonomy and contributes to people's quality of life. But just how well does public transit in Canada meet the transportation needs of older adults? Were our public transit systems designed with those needs in mind? Is public transit affordable?
Without access to affordable, convenient and reliable transportation, many older adults face challenges trying to get to appointments or participate in recreational or social activities—all factors that increase the likelihood of them needing to move to a retirement community or long-term care facility sooner. Instead, imagine thriving neighbourhoods that have universally accessible transit routes, with stops and destinations that are easy to reach, and adapted to the unique lifestyle of older adults.
Innovating with insight: Getting on board
In collaboration with Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) and through the participation of experts by experience in Montréal and Victoria, Merrina investigated how public transit could better meet the diverse needs of older adults. The research, supported by the NRC's Aging in Place Challenge program, allowed the collection of feedback from both existing users and non-users of transit across Canada. The ultimate goal of her research is to promote innovation in transit systems and services in order to make them more inclusive and seamless.
Through comprehensive surveys on the travel needs and experiences of older adults in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Halifax, Victoria and Saskatoon, the team gained valuable insights on how older adults use their local transit services, their level of satisfaction, their challenges with the services and possible improvements that could lead to them using transit more frequently.
While each region in the survey is unique, older adults in all regions benefit from transit systems that have easy-to-access stations and stops, reliable and fast travel times and routes that suite their travel needs, in other words, systems that are more convenient than driving. Other key findings include:
- Although access to transit and walkability are important factors for many older adults, housing affordability was a more important consideration in dictating where older adults live.
- In contrast to daily commuters, older adults tend to travel more during off-peak hours, when transit services are less frequent. They also make fewer and shorter trips.
- Individual perceptions of transit greatly influence their decision to use public transit, regardless of convenience or ease of access.
"Understanding and improving public transportation for older adults is crucial because it has a direct impact on their quality of life and on their independence," explains Merrina Zhang. "When we invest in making transit systems more accessible and inclusive, we support the well-being of our aging population and improve our understanding of how transit can be made more efficient to meet a variety of needs."
"This partnership between the NRC and McGill University has been valuable in ensuring the findings of the research project are practice-ready and grounded in reality," says Professor Ahmed El-Geneidy, director of the TRAM research group. "Working with the NRC has enabled us to use their extensive networks to connect with transit agencies, knowledge-users and experts-by-experience, bringing their needs to the centre of our research design. The NRC's connections have allowed us to maximize the knowledge mobilization, ensuring our research findings are communicated to agencies and decision-makers in each of our 6 study regions, and across the country."
On the right track: Building age-friendly communities
Creating age-friendly communities is 1 of the 3 main approaches that the Aging in Place Challenge program has proposed to support the capacity of older Canadians to continue living in their homes and communities as they age. Innovations that aim to adapt our social and physical environments to accommodate people living with frailty, cognitive impairments and other known risk factors for transitions in care, will foster communities where aging in place is not only possible but encouraged. Findings like those from the NRC-McGill research project have the potential to contribute to changes in social structures and urban systems, which support an independent lifestyle for older adults.
"Recognizing what makes public transportation hard to use can lead to new ideas that help everyone, especially older adults," says Patricia Debergue, Director of the Aging in Place Challenge program. "When older adults can use public transit safely and easily to get around their communities, they can keep contributing to society, which benefits everyone."
This research was supported by grants and contributions awarded through the Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program, administered by the NRC's National Program Office.