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The Role of Public Transport in Addressing Sustainable Mobility for the Elderly Population in Malta

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The Role of Public Transport in Addressing Sustainable Mobility for the Elderly Population in Malta Xjenza Online - Journal of Malta Chamber of Scientists http://www.mcs.org.mt/ Doi: http://dx.medra.org/10.7423/XJENZA.2013.2.06 Research Article The role of Public Transport in addressing Sustainable Mobility for the Elderly Population in Malta Deborah Mifsud1 and Maria Attard1 1Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, University of Malta, Msida, Malta Abstract. Over the past few years, several countries have continued experiencing a growth in their elderly 1 Introduction population. Similarly, a number of towns and villages A main goal of sustainable mobility is to meet the travel in Malta registered a high elderly population in the demands of present and future population. One major last census (NSO, 2012). The elderly people are one of demographic group which has specific mobility needs is the dominant `transport disadvantaged' groups in the the elderly population. Globally there are 800 million community. This research aims to analyse whether the people (11% of the global population) that are over current public transport system in Malta is providing 60 years, and this is set to increase to two billion by effective and efficient mobility for elderly in the town 2050, representing 22 per cent of the global population of Luqa. In order to analyse this, the study analysed (Bloom et al., 2011). The Maltese Islands are following spatial accessibility, sought to identify barriers encoun- the same trend. In 2011 the number of elderly people tered by the elderly when using public transport and over 65 years of age in Malta was 67,841, representing determine temporal accessibility to medical care. Data 16.3 per cent of the whole population, compared to was collected using telephone surveys, travel time and 13.7 per cent in 2005 (NSO, 2012). Projections by bus frequency surveys. Statistical analysis was carried the National Statistics Office (2011) reveal that the out using IBM SPSS 20 and Geographic Information elderly population in the Maltese Islands will increase Systems. The study showed that proximity to bus by 72 per cent in 2060 when compared to this segment stops in Luqa does not affect public transport use of the population in 2010. Therefore, with such a amongst the elderly. The main barriers that elderly continuous increase in the number of elderly people, encounter when using public transport are mainly analysing their mobility needs is fundamental because related to long waiting times, lack of comfort on bus such growth will challenge the current transport and stops and inaccessible travel information. Finally, urban infrastructure. Different system requirements temporal accessibility from Luqa to the State's general will be necessary to provide equal travel opportunities hospital, Mater Dei, still requires improvements as that support elderly mobility independence. it does not meet the desired time budgets of elderly Sustainable mobility requires the need to promote people. By identifying the main concerns this study travelling through an accessible and reliable public seeks to encourage policy makers and planners to target transport system (Guti´errezet al., 2011). The elderly future development in public transport taking into are one of the \transport disadvantaged groups" in consideration the requirements of the growing elderly society, that is people that use public transport because population. they have no other choice due to various factors, mainly age, disability, income and no access to private means Keywords Elderly population { Public transport { of transport (Beimborn et al., 2003). Hence, one Spatial and temporal accessibility { Barriers in public main contribution of public transport is to potentially transport { Luqa. Correspondence to: D. Mifsud ([email protected]) c 2013 Xjenza Online The role of Public Transport in addressing Sustainable Mobility for the Elderly Population in Malta 48 minimize social exclusion and increase social justice for ling during peak hours and hardly ever for the off-peak those in need (Farrington and Farrington, 2005). Lucas hours when elderly travel the most. (2012) explains the interrelationship between transport Another important issue to consider when analysing disadvantage and other key issues that can lead to social barriers in public transport is travel time. It is an im- exclusion (Fig.(1)). Being transport disadvantaged portant indicator for both operators and users and sig- does not necessary mean being social disadvantaged. nificantly impacts transport costs and benefits, particu- However these two aspects usually merge directly or larly in regions trying to foster a modal shift to public indirectly and cause transport poverty. This subse- transport (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999). Tribby and quently results in inaccessibility to fundamental goods Zandbergen (2012) explain how determining changes in and services as well as exclusion from decision-making travel times is one measure of assessing public trans- processes. As a result, social exclusion and further port's accessibility equity. This type of accessibility is transport inequalities then follow. sometimes more important to study in public transport because frequency and service hours can make some of the necessary, but not temporally fixed obligations un- reachable by bus. In actual fact, a crucial obligation, with particular reference to elderly people, is the ac- cess to medical care. Although healthier than their Eu- ropean counterparts, in 40 years' time Malta's elderly population will reach the 108,000 mark, of which 20 per cent are expected to require hospitalisation (Times of Malta, 2012). Hence, good and equal access to health care services is crucial for the elderly (Department of Health, 2002). 2 Proposed Methodology The methodology proposed in this work aimed to anal- yse the relationship between elderly people and public Figure 1: The relationship between transport disadvantage, social disadvantage and social exclusion. Source: Lucas (2012). transport accessibility. This was tackled through the analysis of spatial and temporal accessibility together Consequently, accessible and reliable public transport with the analysis of barriers that elderly encounter when is essential to provide the necessary mobility for the using public transport. Spatial and temporal accessi- transport disadvantaged elderly. Marsden et al. (2007) bility are two main factors that affect public transport state that for older people, the journey itself and the usage (Murray and Wu, 2003) and which fit into the feeling of freedom it gives them, are often more impor- multi-dimensionality of accessibility as a means to mea- tant than the actual destination. Consequently, lack of sure equity (Tribby and Zandbergen, 2012). However, access to transport among older persons could result in good accessibility is usually hindered by several barri- social isolation, lower self-esteem, feelings of uselessness, ers. For this reason, the research highlights these ob- loneliness, unhappiness, low levels of physical activity, stacles and provides suggestions to minimise their im- reduced independence and depression, which contribute pact. The main data collection methods used were (i) to further poorer health conditions and risks (Victor et 200 telephone surveys to a sample of elderly people re- al., 2005; Hess, 2009). Shergold and Parkhurst (2010) siding in Luqa, (ii) a GPS to locate the elderly resi- explain that public transport, in the form of buses, is a dences and, (iii) travel time and bus frequency surveys key measure to support social sustainability as it helps to analyse temporal accessibility to the State's general to avoid social exclusion. hospital in Malta, Mater Dei. The research was carried However, public transport is not always a reasonable out throughout a period of one year and three months substitute for private transport for older people (Hess, (November 2011 { February 2013) of which two months 2009). The use of public transport by the elderly is (May {June 2012) were utilised for the telephone sur- negatively affected by several restrictions such as phys- veys data collection and another one month (July 2012) ical limitations, lack of accessibility (e.g. absence of for the travel time and bus frequency surveys. low floor buses, dangerous busy roads and high curbs), Telephone surveys were chosen because as Conrad and fear of falling, safety, bus design, bus driver behaviour, Schober (2000) explain, conversational interviewing en- and overall declining quality of public transport systems sures a uniform interpretation of the intent of each ques- (Wixey et al., 2005; Marsden et al., 2007). Also, public tion. Telephone surveys also have large scale accessibil- transport is often oriented towards commuters travel- ity, particularly for elderly. A high percentage of old http://dx.medra.org/10.7423/XJENZA.2013.2.06 http://www.mcs.org.mt/ The role of Public Transport in addressing Sustainable Mobility for the Elderly Population in Malta 49 people do not have access to a computer or to the inter- in institutions. For this reason, a very important net so the telephone is the best way of communication contribution for the high elderly population in Luqa is for them. Telephone surveys are also more `safe' com- the state residential home of St Vincent de Paule (the pared to a home visit which creates a sense of `fear'. largest elderly residential home in Malta established in Several studies concerning accessibility only dealt with 1862). It currently hosts approximately 1,000 residents. spatial accessibility (proximity).
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