IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/transp/v42y2015i6p1129-1151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transport, unmet activity needs and wellbeing in later life: exploring the links

Author

Listed:
  • Susanne Nordbakke
  • Tim Schwanen

Abstract

Using nationally representative data from Norway, this paper analyses the link between transport and wellbeing by considering the extent to which older adults believe that their needs for out-of-home activity participation remain unsatisfied. It demonstrates that such transport-related factors as holding a driving license and subjective evaluations of public transport supply shape the level of unmet needs for out-of-home activity. Other factors that help explain differences in the extent of unmet activity needs include actual participation in out-of-home activities, self-perceived health and problems with walking, outlook on life, residential location and indicators of social support and social networks. It is concluded that policymakers seeking to raise wellbeing above a minimum threshold of what counts as a decent life should enhance older adults’ ability to drive in old age and car availability, lower the distance to public transport stops, and improve the connectivity that public transport offers to destinations. Policies to improve wellbeing in later life should nonetheless move beyond silo thinking. Questions of mobility in later life require a cross-sector and holistic approach to policy that transcends the realm of transport planning. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Susanne Nordbakke & Tim Schwanen, 2015. "Transport, unmet activity needs and wellbeing in later life: exploring the links," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(6), pages 1129-1151, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:42:y:2015:i:6:p:1129-1151
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-014-9558-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11116-014-9558-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11116-014-9558-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephanie J. Fonda & Robert B. Wallace & A. Regula Herzog, 2001. "Changes in Driving Patterns and Worsening Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(6), pages 343-351.
    2. Ed Diener & Eunkook Suh, 1997. "Measuring Quality Of Life: Economic, Social, And Subjective Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 189-216, January.
    3. Darren M. Scott & Kenneth Bruce Newbold & Jamie E.L. Spinney & Ruben Mercado & Antonio Páez & Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, 2009. "New Insights into Senior Travel Behavior: The Canadian Experience," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 140-168, March.
    4. Susanne Nordbakke & Tim Schwanen, 2014. "Well-being and Mobility: A Theoretical Framework and Literature Review Focusing on Older People," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 104-129, February.
    5. Jonas De Vos & Tim Schwanen & Veronique Van Acker & Frank Witlox, 2013. "Travel and Subjective Well-Being: A Focus on Findings, Methods and Future Research Needs," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 421-442, July.
    6. Runt Veenhoven, 2002. "Why Social Policy Needs Subjective Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 33-46, June.
    7. Toshiyuki Yamamoto & Ryuichi Kitamura, 1999. "An analysis of time allocation to in-home and out-of-home discretionary activities across working days and non- working days," Transportation, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 231-250, May.
    8. Spinney, Jamie E.L. & Scott, Darren M. & Newbold, K. Bruce, 2009. "Transport mobility benefits and quality of life: A time-use perspective of elderly Canadians," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, January.
    9. Tim Schwanen & Donggen Wang, 2014. "Well-Being, Context, and Everyday Activities in Space and Time," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(4), pages 833-851, July.
    10. Tim Schwanen & Martin Dijst & Frans M. Dieleman, 2001. "Leisure trips of senior citizens: determinants of modal choice," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 92(3), pages 347-360, August.
    11. Sandra Rosenbloom, 2001. "Sustainability and automobility among the elderly: An international assessment," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 375-408, November.
    12. Richard A. Marottoli & Carlos F. Mendes de Leon & Thomas A. Glass & Christianna S. Williams & Leo M. Cooney & Lisa F. Berkman, 2000. "Consequences of Driving Cessation," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(6), pages 334-340.
    13. B E Tonn, 1984. "A Sociopsychological Contribution to the Theory of Individual Time-Allocation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 16(2), pages 201-223, February.
    14. Ettema, Dick & Gärling, Tommy & Olsson, Lars E. & Friman, Margareta, 2010. "Out-of-home activities, daily travel, and subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 723-732, November.
    15. Stanley, John K. & Hensher, David A. & Stanley, Janet R. & Vella-Brodrick, Dianne, 2011. "Mobility, social exclusion and well-being: Exploring the links," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 789-801, October.
    16. Hjorthol, Randi J. & Levin, Lena & Sirén, Anu, 2010. "Mobility in different generations of older persons," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 624-633.
    17. Nordbakke, Susanne, 2013. "Capabilities for mobility among urban older women: barriers, strategies and options," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 166-174.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morris, Eric A., 2015. "Should we all just stay home? Travel, out-of-home activities, and life satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 519-536.
    2. Annesha Enam & Karthik C. Konduri & Naveen Eluru & Srinath Ravulaparthy, 2018. "Relationship between well-being and daily time use of elderly: evidence from the disabilities and use of time survey," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 1783-1810, November.
    3. Ryan, Jean & Wretstrand, Anders & Schmidt, Steven M., 2015. "Exploring public transport as an element of older persons' mobility: A Capability Approach perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 105-114.
    4. Hansen, Stine & Newbold, K. Bruce & Scott, Darren M. & Vrkljan, Brenda & Grenier, Amanda, 2020. "To drive or not to drive: Driving cessation amongst older adults in rural and small towns in Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Dong, Han & Zhang, Jun & Cirillo, Cinzia, 2019. "Exploring, understanding, and modeling the reciprocal relation between leisure and subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 813-824.
    6. Susanne T. Dale Nordbakke, 2019. "Mobility, Out-of-Home Activity Participation and Needs Fulfilment in Later Life," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-16, December.
    7. De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank, 2017. "Travel satisfaction revisited. On the pivotal role of travel satisfaction in conceptualising a travel behaviour process," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 364-373.
    8. Nordbakke, Susanne, 2013. "Capabilities for mobility among urban older women: barriers, strategies and options," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 166-174.
    9. Haustein, Sonja & Siren, Anu, 2014. "Seniors’ unmet mobility needs – how important is a driving licence?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 45-52.
    10. Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Ettema, Dick & Olsson, Lars E., 2017. "How does travel affect emotional well-being and life satisfaction?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 170-180.
    11. Lovejoy, Kristin, 2012. "Mobility Fulfillment Among Low-car Households: Implications for Reducing Auto Dependence in the United States," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt4v44b5qn, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    12. Su, Rongxiang & Xiao, Jingyi & McBride, Elizabeth C. & Goulias, Konstadinos G., 2021. "Understanding senior's daily mobility patterns in California using human mobility motifs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Spinney, Jamie E.L. & Newbold, K. Bruce & Scott, Darren M. & Vrkljan, Brenda & Grenier, Amanda, 2020. "The impact of driving status on out-of-home and social activity engagement among older Canadians," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Majumdar, Bandhan Bandhu & Jayakumar, Malavika & Sahu, Prasanta K. & Potoglou, Dimitris, 2021. "Identification of key determinants of travel satisfaction for developing policy instrument to improve quality of life: An analysis of commuting in Delhi," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 281-292.
    15. Navarrete-Hernandez, Pablo & Christopher Zegras, P., 2023. "Mind the perception gap: The impact of bus rapid transit infrastructure on travelers’ perceptions of affective subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    16. Mifsud, Deborah & Attard, Maria & Ison, Stephen, 2017. "To drive or to use the bus? An exploratory study of older people in Malta," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 23-32.
    17. He, Sylvia Y. & Cheung, Yannie H.Y. & Tao, Sui, 2018. "Travel mobility and social participation among older people in a transit metropolis: A socio-spatial-temporal perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 608-626.
    18. Jonas De Vos, 2019. "Analysing the effect of trip satisfaction on satisfaction with the leisure activity at the destination of the trip, in relationship with life satisfaction," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 623-645, June.
    19. He, Sylvia Y. & Thøgersen, John & Cheung, Yannie H.Y. & Yu, Alesia H.Y., 2020. "Ageing in a transit-oriented city: Satisfaction with transport, social inclusion and wellbeing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 85-94.
    20. Cheng, Long & Chen, Xuewu & Yang, Shuo & Cao, Zhan & De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank, 2019. "Active travel for active ageing in China: The role of built environment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 142-152.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ageing; Wellbeing; Need; Norway;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:42:y:2015:i:6:p:1129-1151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.