Abstract
Developing an age-friendly environment is a significant social concern in the 21st century to address the global challenge of growing city-based aging population, as the percentage of people aged over 65 years will be doubled by 2051 and most of them are living in urban areas. This challenge might be mitigated by the age-friendly city concept of The World Health Organization. Seniors’ community contributions and out-of-home activities mostly depend on transportation which involves mobility issues. This paper examines the effectiveness of an age-friendly public transportation system and its impact on the travel behavior of aged people and exposes the major features of an age-friendly transportation system; whether the public transportation system meets senior’s interests; significant drawbacks of the present system which impede their mobility and how these can be solved. The case study uses qualitative research which includes different methods of data collection: secondary documents, observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions with the seniors to gather their personal experiences, to identify their attitudes towards transport-accessibility, and evaluate the age-friendly guidelines applied in the selected area. Several relevant literature were reviewed to address the issue theoretically. Primary findings demonstrate the significant age-friendly guidelines operated currently which seem to be linked with active aging, the experiences and attitudes of the aged people towards transport convenience, and pitfalls of the present public bus services which obstruct the age-friendly environment. Finally, some suggestions have been proposed to make the public transportation system more effective for the aged people and to ensure positive aging.
Presenters
Roksana RahmanDeputy Director, Liaison and Listeners' Research, Bangladesh Betar (State Owned Radio), Ministry of Information, Dhaka zila, Bangladesh
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Public Policy and Public Perspectives on Aging
KEYWORDS
Active Aging, Age-friendly Environments, Age-Friendliness, Age-friendly Transportation, Positive Aging
