Small Changes To Transport Systems * USA - Could Mean Big Benefits For Older People

USA -ScienceDaily -Sep. 11, 2008: -- A new study has pinpointed how simple, low-cost measures could revolutionise older people's ability to use transport systems effectively, safely and with confidence... Researchers at the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University believe the measures they have identified could eliminate many of the day-to-day problems that currently deter older people from using public transport and the pavements and roads in their locality...
Examples of potential measures include:
- Provision of road crossings at a greater number of wide or busy junctions.
- Provision of road crossings that allow pedestrians a longer time to cross.
- Designing bus interiors to ensure secure handholds are provided in the wheelchair and buggy storage area, through which passengers boarding the bus have to pass.
- Designing bus stops to ensure people sitting down inside them can easily see when their bus is coming, without repeatedly having to get up and down to check.
- Introducing a system of accredited standards for taxi companies, to reassure older people that they will only be taken to their destination via the most direct route
(Credit: Image courtesy of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - Seeing transport through different eyes: a researcher accompanies an older person on a walk-round in the Leeds area)