A growing number of elderly with an increasing average age is an interesting target group for research. Physical impairments and a decreasing need for mobility can result in a limited mobility behaviour. The growing amount of discretionary time and better pension payments allow people to move about more. The National Travel Survey (OVG) gives the opportunity to analyze the travel behaviour of elderly. Frequency of trips, motives, modal split, distance and temporal aspects are studied. With age the number of people making no trip during the interview day increases. The differences in mobility behaviour between the age groups are small, provided that people are mobile. Older people are travelling less by car and are walking more. This is not producing the expected differences in the distances covered by different age groups. A strong relationship exists with car ownership. Higher educated people make more trips. Age is not the only factor to affect mobility behaviour. (A)
Abstract