Social Sustainability Issues and Older Adults’ Dependence on Automobiles in Low-Density Environments

Abstract

An implicit assumption underlying government strategies to achieve a more sustainable urban transportation system is that all automobile users will be encouraged or persuaded to use more "green" transportation: public transportation, walking and cycling. Little consideration has been given as to how sustainable transportation policies and programmes might impact on different age groups in society, including those retired or semi-retired, despite the fact that an unprecedented number of older drivers will be on the highways in the next few decades. There is limited literature on the contextual factors behind their continued reliance on automobiles, their actual driving behavior (e.g., route choice and time of day to drive) framed within the context of social sustainability. This paper introduces the elements of transportation and social sustainability then conducts a comprehensive international literature review focusing on older drivers, their travel choices and associated social sustainability issues. It describes a case study, low-density city and presents empirical evidence, from two surveys conducted in Canberra, Australia. The paper concludes with future research directions that address these issues associated with sustainable transportation. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 7290

Shopping trip mode choice of older adults: an application of activity space and hybrid choice models in understanding the effects of built environment and personal goals

“…Hjorthol et al 2010;Mercado et al 2007;Coughlin and D'Ambrosio 2012). Older adults constitute the fastest growing segment of the driving population, both in terms of license rates and kilometers travelled (Nakanishi and Black 2015;Böcker et al 2017). This overreliance on automobile has negative impacts on the society not only in terms of the resulting environmental pollution and congestion (Banister and Bowling 2004), but also the effects on health and wellbeing of this vulnerable age group (e.g.…”

Socio-demographic and built environment determinants of car use among older adults in Iran

“…However, for many, the private car remains vital in preserving independence (Banister and Bowling, 2004;Nakanishi and Black, 2015;Newbold et al, 2005;Schwanen and Páez, 2010). In fact, the 75-84 age cohort tends to rely most heavily on cars (Boschmann and Brady, 2013;Collia et al, 2003;Cui et al, 2017;Mercado and Newbold, 2009;Schmöcker et al, 2008;Schwanen et al, 2001).…”

Feasibility Study of Sensor Aided Impact Acoustic Sorting of Plastic Materials from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs)

“…The Economic Cooperation and Development organization (OECD) has projected that the growth of vehicles could achieve 32% from 1997 to 2020 [1][2][3][4]. China has occupied the first position of global automobile production and sale since 2009, and worldwide in this year more than 13.6 million vehicles were produced and sold; meanwhile 2.7 million ELVs were abandoned.…”

“…ASR contains moisture, ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastics, rubber, mineral materials like glass, dust, foam materials, fibers, woody materials, textiles etc. Due to the high heterogeneity and complex composition ASRs are classified as Hazardous Material and the EU generates about 2-3 Mt ASRs annually [1][2][3][4][7][8][9].…”