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IMPACT OF A DEMAND-RESPONSIVE MINI-BUS SYSTEM FOR THE ELDERLY IN A SMALL URBAN COMMUNITY Robert F. Wiseman* Elder Americans, now numbering over 20 million and increasing at a rate greater than 15 percent per decade, represent one of our largest minority groups. Transportation consistently ranks high among problems confronting this group. (J) Adequate transportation is essential to anyone's quality of life, but lack of mobility places an immense obstacle upon the elderly in particular. Without adequate transportation it is difficult for them to cope with essential tasks of modern life, much less seek the amenities of suburban shopping centers or visit friends, clubs, or other social activities. Although lack of mobility has been oppressively apparent to many elderly for some time, it has only recently become a center of government and academic interest. In response to this and other needs of the elderly a variety of Federal programs have been developed to provide services to the aging. (2) Such programs include health care, nutrition, and, most recently, transportation services. The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of a demand response mini-bus system on elderly travel behavior within a small urban community and to suggest areas in which geographers can make salient research contributions. Delivery of transportation services to the elderly is undertaken in several ways. In larger cities where mass public transit already exists such service usually takes the form of reduced fare plans for senior citizens. In a few instances supplemental demand response service is conducted as a feeder system extension to the fixed route system. In smaller cities and rural areas entirely new demand responsive transportation systems are being established in the form of dial-a-ride, minibus systems. Some of these new systems are the direct result of the * Dr. Wiseman is assistant professor of geography at The University of Kansas. This paper was accepted for publication in February, 1976. 48Southeastern Geographer U.S. Department of Transportation research and development projects. The impetus for most of these new systems, however, has come from the newly created state agencies on aging. Such agencies are coordinating the development of these systems and are providing funds secured through the Older Americans Act to cover administration and some operating expenses. In addition, Urban Mass Transit Administration 's recent redefinition of "urban" to include communities as small as 2,500 population has resulted in the granting of capital equipment , mostly in the form of buses, to small cities and rural communities. As a direct result of all this activity new transit systems designed to meet the needs of the elderly are being created at a surprisingly rapid rate. At last count there were 112 such systems and plans are under way to create many more. (3) There has been a concomitant effort by academicians to provide supportive research on the transportation needs and travel behavior of the elderly, but relatively little study has been contributed by geographers. The transportation needs of older Americans have been articulated repeatedly, especially at the 1970 White House Conference on Aging. (4) Attempts to characterize the general travel behavior of elderly persons are less numerous, but have produced a considerable amount of useful information. For example, it has been shown that age, sex, income, and transportation availability are all strongly related to the frequency of travel for this group. (5) It is here that one finds geographic contributions such as Golant's Toronto study and Marble, Hanson and Hanson's examination of urban elderly travel behavior in Sweden. (6) In both instances travel behavior characteristics of elderly are compared to other age cohorts of the population. Their findings substantiate and extend the results of non-geographic research in this area. To date, however, there has been very little study which focuses upon transportation services being delivered to the aged. Geographic contributions appear to be limited to McKelvey's works which deal with planning and operational considerations in the development of demand-response transit systems for the elderly and handicapped in small scale urban and rural areas. (7) Published studies which evaluate the impact of these systems within the host community are almost non-existent. A recent case study by Patton...

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