The Mineta Transportation Institute hosted the first of a four-part webinar series on Tuesday which examined how the coronavirus impacted the way older adults use public transportation.
The institute, named after former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and former San Jose mayor Norman Mineta, focuses on training and research surrounding the country’s transportation system, according to its website.
Egbe-Etu Etu, research associate for the Mineta Transportation Institute and assistant professor of business analytics at San Jose State, was the keynote presenter at the webinar.
Etu presented his research which surveyed 260 adults who are 55 years old or older and living in metropolitan cities.
The research found that adults 65 and older that rely on public transportation faced challenges accessing it during the pandemic.
He said mobility is an essential component to older adults when it comes to travel within their community.
“Public transportation is kind of taking the leading role in facilitating mobility needs not only for older adults, but for other age groups,” Etu said. “For older adults, it helps them to connect with their friends, families and essential services within their community.”
During the pandemic, many public transportation routes were removed or closed.
“76.7% of the respondents reported that their travel patterns changed as a result of the pandemic,” Etu said.
He said during the early stages of the pandemic, older adults were stressed and worried about contracting COVID-19 from physical contact while on public transportation systems including buses and trains.
Etu said 52% of respondents were apprehensive about contracting the virus if they sat next to a passenger who is sneezing or coughing.
Older adults had to rely on safer alternatives to get their way around their community during the pandemic.
The Mineta Transportation Institute asked participants in its survey to reflect on their smartphone usage over the past two years while using public transportation.
The majority of respondents believed that public transportation apps helped them get accurate and quicker transit information.
During the pandemic, the top three purposes found for public transportation in older adults were for medical appointments, visiting family or friends and work.
Etu said transportation technology should be well designed and all-inclusive for every age group.
The survey reported 75% of respondents believed that any mobile transit apps would enable them to quickly obtain transit information.
Etu said some factors that may lead mobile users to be reluctant to adopt mobile transportation technology are poor design, transaction complexity and lack of security. These factors can highly impact how older adults interact with public transportation.
“The most important takeaway would be how to incorporate or create more awareness with technology and how older adults can utilize technology to make the aspect of mobility in their lives pretty easy and efficient,” he said.
Older adults who have smartphones or access to smartphones were able to utilize technology to get public transport information. This helped reduce some challenges faced by older adults during the pandemic.
The research done by the Mineta Transportation Institute may provide guidance for public transportation and mobile technology designers to develop effective strategies to improve transportation service.
“We did look at the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center to see how we could develop some recommendations to help older adults right during this period, and one of them would be assisted transportation,” said Etu.
