Current EUROSTAT predictions show that the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population (EU-27) is projected to increase from 17.5% (2011) to 29.5% (2060) (EUROSTAT, 2011). Similarly, the number of people aged 80 years or over is expected to grow from 4.8% in 2011 to 12% in 2060. In order to keep older people actively involved in their daily activities, it is vital that they are able to travel and have access to acceptable levels of mobility. These demographic changes produce considerable challenges for future transportation systems and place new and growing demands on transport systems. According to an OECD report (OECD, 2001), on the whole, older people who drive will prefer to continue doing so for as long as possible and will also expect to have access to alternative transport modes that meet their individual needs, especially as they approach 80 years of age. Future transport systems and services will play an essential role in supporting independent, healthy ageing. The GOAL project (Growing Older, stAying mobiLe: Transport needs for an ageing society) aims to summarising 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 (Hoedemaeker, M. et al., 2011 ). This action plan is being developed through interaction with different stakeholders, state-of-the-art reviews, identification of possible and relevant societal developments and alternatives to transport. To achieve these objectives, the GOAL partners have organised different workshops where the main findings from state-of-the-art reviews were presented to key stakeholders and interactive sessions were used to get their feedback. The resulting findings have been gathered in different deliverables (GOAL website, 2013). This deliverable summarizes the key findings of the GOAL project with regard to each of its main activities dealing with transportation options of older people and provides a set of further relevant references to literature and to important websites/projects involving the mobility of an ageing population. It also includes the valuable feedback of some GOAL supporting partners and a glossary of terms in relation to the mobility of older people. In this way, the information included in this deliverable serves as guidance on the transport needs of an ageing society and will be presented at the final GOAL workshop and further reviewed afterwards with the inputs received during the event. Specifically, this deliverable (D7.2) is framed within GOAL Work Package (WP) 7 Transport needs of older people and is specifically linked to task 7.3 Provision of Guidance inside WP7. The main objective of WP7 is to use the results of the previous WPs and combine them into an action plan that indicates the relevant knowledge gaps, research needs and product development and to provide guidance on transport needs based on existing knowledge. Task 7.3 and therefore deliverable D7.2 deals with the second part of that objective, i.e. with the provision of guidance on the transport needs of an ageing society on the basis of existing knowledge gathered in the project. In particular, task 7.3 aims to provide guidance with respect to transport needs of older people, based on the available information. This guidance shows, for example, where the relevant information is available and how this can be used in the short term. Thus, a synthesis of the available information coming from the main GOAL WPs dealing with different transport modalities is provided, i.e.: WP3, WP4 and WP5. For instance, the needs of older people with respect to public transport are well documented and summarized in WP4. Then, the key information with respect to public transport is extracted from WP4 and included in this task, as well as indications about where the information can be obtained. Thus, the guidance is a reference of all the relevant available information with respect to the transport needs in an ageing society. This report is structured as follows: - Chapter 1 explains the scope of this deliverable in relation to the GOAL project and presents how the report is structured. - Chapter 2 provides a synthesis of the findings of each of the GOAL WPs dealing with the mobility of older people, i.e. WP3 on driving, WP4 on public transport, walking and cycling and WP5 on traveller information and guidance. - Chapter 3 offers relevant additional literature references regarding each of these topics, as well as references to projects and websites, both specifically oriented to a concrete transport modality and covering the mobility of older people in general. It also offers a summary concerning the profiles of older people which have been developed within the project and the feedback from GOAL supporting partners. - Chapter 4 presents some final remarks and conclusions on what GOAL has achieved with regard to the mobility of an ageing population. - A chapter with references cited in the report is included at the end. - Annex 1: A glossary of terms is provided in an annex. - Annex 2: The list of questions delivered to GOAL supporting partners to gather their feedback is included in an annex at the end. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting