The increasing share of older people in the European population produces considerable challenges for future transportation systems. Older people are usually regarded as a group with particular limitations and needs; hence the consideration of specific requirements of this growing group has been attached great importance in transportation research. The GOAL project aims at comprising current knowledge and identifying research gaps in order to develop an action plan for innovative solutions to fulfil the transport needs of an ageing society. In many studies, older people are seen as a single homogeneous group with specific — mainly physical and mental — limitations. In reality, though, the group of older people is extremely heterogeneous, only joined by their age. In order to efficiently evaluate whether current research and development activities are appropriate for fulfilling the differing needs of older people with dissimilar characteristics, it is therefore necessary to comprehensively investigate and categorise the main relevant determinants of elderly mobility and identify typical combinations of such characteristics. For this reason, the initial part of the GOAL project was especially focusing on the development of plausible profiles of older people. The consideration of typical combinations of aspects influencing the mobility of older people provides a valuable basis for performing an inclusive assessment task of current mobility research in this area. The development of the profiles was based on a multi-stage approach including a multitude of different information resources. In general, the approach comprised of mainly three components: the quantitative analysis of available European databases and data from two limited surveys in several European countries, the qualitative analysis, categorization and inclusion of relevant findings from international literature and the repeated discussion of the results and different versions of the profiles with international experts in the course of two workshops. In total, five different profiles have been identified which differ in demographics (age range, sex), state of health and life satisfaction, living conditions and social networks, mobility behaviour, living environment, technology and information usage ,and transition points (lifechanging events). The final profiles provide comprehensive insight into profile-related mobility determinants. The use of the profiles in the consecutive work packages of the GOAL project enables identifying current and future transport needs of older people in due consideration of the heterogeneity in this population. (Author/publisher)
Abstract