SURTC to Look at Travel Potential of Elderly in Rural Areas

As population across rural regions of the United States consolidates around trade centers, the proportion of elderly remaining in small towns and rural areas continues to grow. Their growing proportion and increasing average age is bound to have an influence on their mobility, and a new SURTC study should help researchers and policy makers assess the situation.

"There is very little data on the travel potential of the elderly, particularly women, in rural areas," notes Jill Hough, SURTC director and coordinator of the study. "We've seen the changing demographics, but no one has really assessed what this means for the mobility of these people."

The number of Americans older than 65 will more than double by 2030 and 9 million of them will be older than 85 years old. Currently, about 23 percent of those older than 65 live in rural areas. Data also shows that Americans over age 65 are only 25 percent as likely to move as they retire as compared to the elderly of 30 years ago. "The implication is that we'll have more elderly individuals living in rural areas and more of them will be living in their own homes," Hough notes.

Hough says the research will:

• Identify factors that influence the travel potential for individuals living in rural areas.
• Identify social factors that influence travel potential for those individuals.
• Identify environmental factors that most impact their travel potential.
• Determine if public transportation services increase the travel potential of rural elderly.

"Because this is a relatively new area of research, we are likely to identify new types of data that will need to be collected on rural elderly populations," Hough says. "But most importantly, we ultimately want to make recommendations for improving the travel potential of the rural elderly. Those recommendations could focus on transit services, other services or land-use policies."

The study is part of Hough's work toward a doctoral degree from the University of California-Davis. She will collaborate with Susan Handy and Daniel Sperling, both faculty of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC-Davis.

Events Calendar

• DTA - 2005 Roadeo, September 18, Minot, ND
• DTA - 2005 Annual Conference, September 19-22, Minot, ND
• APTA - Annual Meeting & EXPO 2005, September 25-28, Dallas, TX
• SURTC - How to Develop a Business Plan, October 18, via TLN
• MPTA - 31st Annual Conference, October 24-26, Bloomington, MN
• TRB - 85th Annual Meeting, January 22-26, 2006, Washington, DC
• SURTC is scheduling training sessions. Please check www.surtc.org for updates.