Mobility characteristics of the elderly and their associated level of satisfaction with transport services in Osogbo, Southwestern Nigeria

Older people are perceived to face different problems while commuting. Studies on mobility of the elderly and associated constraints are, in Nigeria, recent but scanty. Hence, this paper explores elderly mobility characteristics, commuting patterns, quality of transport services and problems associated with the use of public transport services. Questionnaires were administered to 250 elderly aged 60 years and above using a purposive sampling technique. Findings showed that 58.4% of the sampled elderly lack personal means of transportation. The study revealed that an elderly generates about 2.88 trips per day. Trip destinations within a distance of 2 km of respondents' residence accounted for 65.60% trips generated. Daily frequency accounted for 38.56% of the visits to four trip destinations (work, social, religion and market). Walking accounts for 36.89% of travel mode of the elderly. Transport constraints identified include high transport fare, lack of bus stops, poor nature of roads, traffic congestion, poor attitude of commercial transport operators and the absence of state owned transport services. There is also a low level of satisfaction with transport services with significant variation in satisfaction with transport service among the different age groups. The paper suggests that government should include issues of elderly mobility and safety in the nation's transport policy in addition to the provision of affordable public transport services for the elderly. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.