Exploring patterns of heterogeneity in activity–travel behaviors of older people
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The travel behavior and mobility needs of older people have been topics of much interest to transport planners and policy makers for a number of reasons. The desire to provide mobility to older people even as their capabilities diminish, and the need to recognize their vulnerability when they do attempt to navigate the transportation network on their own, has motivated a rich stream of research dedicated to studying their activity–travel behavior. Many studies in the past, and most travel models to date, consider older people as a single market segment of 65 years of age or over. To better understand differences among various subgroups of the older population, this thesis presents a detailed analysis and comparison of older population subgroups using data derived from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) of the United States. The thesis includes detailed descriptive statistics on technology and time use patterns with a view to identify how these behaviors evolve as people age. In addition, the thesis presents three modeling efforts to understand the differential effects of age on the action space, the use of transportation modes, and the activity participation and time allocation behavior of older people. The analysis suggests that there is considerable heterogeneity among older people, which calls for more targeted policy interventions and a more disaggregate treatment of older population subgroups in travel models. The analysis reveals that an individual’s medical condition and need for use of a medical device are significant explanatory variables affecting all three of the choice dimensions considered in the modeling efforts of this thesis. This calls for the development of policies and mobility options that serve the disabled regardless of age, while recognizing the inherent correlation between age and disability status