Autonomy, Adaptation and Choice: The Contribution of Mobility to Independent Living

This paper identifies a series of deficiencies in traditional approaches to the planning and management of urban space, transport services and travel facilities. From an analysis of mobility problems in urban areas, as seen from the perspective of the elderly and disabled people that currently encounter the difficulties such problems present, suggestions are made about how these deficiencies might be better addressed through the urban planning and transport systems. In particular, the paper addresses the extent to which the problems faced by elderly and disabled people are “distinct” from those faced by other travelers. It considers if the “travel needs” of elderly and disabled people warrant special facilities, which their use alone should justify; or whether they are better considered as expressing more clearly the “needs” of most travelers, whose wider benefits should be regarded as justifying many of the facilities that elderly and disabled people find essential. An analysis is presented of the views of a selection of elderly or disabled people regarding the effects of their difficulties in traveling on their travel behavior and on their quality of life. Using data from in-depth interviews undertaken in the Greater Manchester and Tyne & Wear conurbations, it explores how elderly and disabled people adapt their lifestyle to accommodate their travel difficulties. The analysis shows how changes in transport facilities aimed at improving their mobility could provide them with a greater sense of autonomy, greater freedom of choice and hence enhance their opportunity for independent living. The analysis of elderly and disabled people’s views is set in a wider context by comparing their personal and travel characteristics with data drawn from the British National Travel Survey and data from travel surveys undertaken in Greater Manchester. These comparisons show that elderly and disabled people often exhibit apparent paradoxes in their travel behavior. Such paradoxes appear to result from processes of adaptation and travel avoidance that are part of the strategies used by some elderly and disabled people for coping with and overcoming their mobility difficulties. The paper concludes by suggesting a framework, grounded in social theory and derived from work on the delivery of welfare and health care services, within which provision of transport services and improvements to travel facilities directed at the needs of elderly and disabled people might be assessed in a wider context. This paper develops work reported by the author at previous International Conferences on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled People.