1. Better mobility for older people
Stephen Joseph
Campaign for Better Transport
Public transport

2. Campaign for Better Transport
Charitable trust promoting sustainable transport
Support from wide range of interests
Co-ordinates NGOs concerned with transport
Commissions and publishes research
Conducts public campaigns
Promotes pilot projects and good practice

3. More older people driving…
…but what happens when they can’t?
Access to key services limited
Cuts in bus services
Places designed round cars and car use
Public realm hostile to non-car mobility
… resulting in isolation and exclusion

4. Access to services
Services moving away from where people live – banking, retail, health, leisure
In many cases located in places that are accessible easily only by car
Service design assumes car use and access

5. Cuts in bus services
45% reduction in funding for bus services across England and Wales to bus services reduced or withdrawn since

6. Places designed around cars: Transport for New Homes
Project reviewing transport impacts of new homes
field-based project reviewing a variety of new housing developments in different places in the UK
Comparisons with Netherlands and Sweden

7. Key findings
New homes often cut off from surrounding areas with no pavements
Car-based living with resulting congestion
Minimalist public realm
Limited local facilities
Public transport often poor or absent

8. Hostile public realm
Pavements are not maintained well and are low priority for repair and gritting
Short crossing times for pedestrians at crossings
Cycling not treated s a transport mode for older people

9. Result: isolation, loneliness and ill health
Lack of access to other people
Increased social care costs
Slips, trips and falls
Less physical activity
“ I do not own a car. Thanks to recent bus cuts I can now only get from where I live in Gillingham to Frome once a week. Services generally in Dorset often finish at five o’clock, run so irregularly they are useless and instead of encouraging people onto public transport ensure poorer and older people have to have a car to just get to a doctor or post office or to do basic shopping”

10. Ways forward Plan new developments better More and better bus services
More funding for road and pavement maintenance
Cycling policy as if older people mattered

11. New developments: better practice does exist
Kidbrooke: limited parking, places to walk to
Poundbury: 32% of residents walk to work, local facilities
Kilnwood Vale: extension of Crawley

12. Key lessons
Think about transport at the beginning – access/ networks for all modes
Talk to bus operators/ authorities from the start
Plan for something other than 100% car use
Conventional transport modelling won’t be very helpful

13. Key lessons 2
Walking and cycling as main modes: safe routes/ networks linked to surrounding area
Mixed use, good local facilities
High quality public realm not huge car parks
Involve local people

14. Better buses
New Bus Services Act gives new powers for councils for partnerships and franchising
“Total Transport”: co-ordinate all local transport contracts
Recognise and fund wider benefits of good bus services
Training for drivers

15. Better public realm More emphasis on local pavement maintenance
Salting and gritting for pavements not just roads
High quality continuous walking routes
Better crossing times and places

16. Cycling for older people
Cycling seen as for young fit men who run over older people on pavements
In the Netherlands around 25% of journeys made by women over 60 are by bike

17. Conclusions New generation of older people will be more car-dependent
But they won’t all be able to carry on driving
Strategies for an ageing population need to offer alternatives to a car-based lifestyle
Better access to services
Better planning and design of places and housing
Better bus services with new forms of funding
Increased priority for pavement maintenance
Better public realm with high quality walking routes
Make it easy and natural for older people to cycle
And by the way, reducing car dependence will address other problems and help other groups too
Better strategic planning and guidance
Development around stations
New funding opportunities
LEPs
Business rates
“Total Transport” pilots now underway
Workplace parking levy in Nottingham
Developer funding
Road funding – “integration”
Need revenue funding, not just capital
Changing transport trends
Less car travel
Devolution:
more control over local transport, including rail stations
Rail North/ Transport for the North
Combined authorities
Transport partnerships
Need joint transport/ land use/ economic plans, as in London
Bus reforms

18. For more information Campaign for Better Transport
Foundation for Integrated Transport: and
from technology to behaviour change