Making transport more age-friendly

The Centre for Ageing Better’s Natalie Turner believes innovation and imagination can produce real results in helping older people access public transport

Older people can gain from using public transport, but it doesn’t always work as well as it should do for them. One in three people over the age of 65 never use public transport – often seeing it as unwelcoming or impractical. That statistic speaks for itself.

But the Centre for Ageing Better believes that it is possible to make changes that will lead to benefits for older people, enabling them to engage in the wider community.

How to ensure that transport is age-friendly

The absence of good public and community transport can lead to older people being restricted in the way that they lead their lives.
As we age, we become increasingly likely to be reliant on public transport for essential tasks such as shopping and health appointments, and to maintain health and wellbeing.

An age-friendly community has well-considered public transport links that help us to get where we need to go easily and affordably. This is particularly important in rural areas – where the population tends to be older and public transport scarcer.

Despite inducements such as the free bus pass, around one in three (32%) people aged 65 and above never use public transport, which is a strong indicator that public transport isn’t perceived as a useful or appealing option to many people. And this is the cost of not having age-friendly transport.

But with imagination and enthusiasm, public transport can be made more accessible for older people, and our new Age-friendly Communities Handbook is highlighting examples of best practice that hopefully will inspire others to follow.

Improving the accessibility offer

Liverpool City Region engaged with older people, including those living with dementia and reduced mobility, in planning and implementing accessible trains and stations. After wide consultation, workshops and user testing, Liverpool City Region introduced publicly owned trains that provide audiovisual announcements, level boarding, wide aisles, and security features.

There is also work underway to add lifts at more stations, and this will create step-free access at 80% of the region’s stations by 2030. And to help those on low incomes, Merseytravel offers free bus, train, and ferry travel to residents over 60 at weekends and bank holidays and after 9:30am on weekdays. These changes are promoting greater health and independence for older people.

Liverpool’s approach also highlights the importance of involving residents when designing or modernising services and infrastructure. It is vital that transport services, including the scheduling of staff and vehicles, are designed in a way that doesn’t exclude older people. Involving older people in the decision-making process is one way of ensuring that does not happen.

Training and awareness

Bus operator Morebus is a partner in Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council’s Age-friendly Community initiative. They undertake training to understand the needs of some of their older customers. For example, they are trained to wait until older passengers are seated before pulling away and to lower the ramp to help those with accessibility needs.

All bus drivers are also trained as Dementia Friends, so they can assist passengers who are living with the condition at any age. This complements other age-friendly provision by Morebus, such as bus flooring designed to be dementia-friendly and buses taking wheelchairs and walking aids.

Consequently, many older adults and those with additional needs can travel with confidence, dignity, and ease. BCP delivers age-friendly training every three months for businesses and organisations.

A hub at the centre of the community

The ‘hub’ model represents another approach where local authorities can provide community transport differently to ensure local needs are met.

Nidderdale Plus community hub is a charity providing various services to the Nidderdale and Washburn Valley areas of North Yorkshire, including a community transport service for residents who have no other means of transport.

The hub has a community car on lease from North Yorkshire Council – plus 28 volunteer drivers who use their private cars. Many of the volunteers are older themselves.

It also uses the hub’s minibus to transport people with wheelchairs and to provide group outings. The service provides a lifeline, with over 80% of journeys being health-related and many users needing door-to-door assistance. A ‘befriending through transport’ pilot scheme now aims to reduce loneliness.

All these examples encapsulate best practice across the country, showing what can be achieved when local authorities work closely with communities and transport providers.

The demands placed upon councils will continue to grow, but they still have the power to be transformative in enabling older people to thrive in their local communities, with access to good transport an essential element.

Natalie Turner is deputy director for localities at The Centre for Ageing Better, a charity tackling inequalities in ageing