A Scale for Describing People’s Mobility Status

Abstract

We introduce and test a visual analogue scale (VAS) to measure to what extent people experience difficulties in reaching destinations (N=180). Known-group analyses showed that respondents who are younger, without vehicle access, or in need of a walking aid, had significantly worse accessibility. Regression analysis with reported mobility problems as dependent variables, showed that VAS replaced car availability as the sole significant explanatory variable. A separate regression model revealed that the mobility problems explain more than half of the variance in VAS (R2=0.528). These results are promising but more research is needed to scrutinize the validity of the VAS.