Characterizing active mobility patterns of older people in Santiago de Chile

Introduction and objectives

Older people represent the fastest growing group worldwide. However, their mobility patterns have often been neglected in the literature and in public policies. To better understand the mobility of older persons, the objective of this study is to characterize the active mobility of older people in Santiago de Chile, through an analysis of the citywide Origin-Destination Survey of 2012.

Methods

The analysis involved the 34 communes of Greater Santiago (about 7 million), a highly fragmented and unequal city. For processing and analysis, sociodemographic variables were selected – gender, age, economic income – along with variables related to mobility – travel purpose, distance travelled, travel time, mode of travel. Microsoft Excel was used to consolidate data and produce tables and graphs, while IBM SPSS Statistics 25 was used for recoding, creation of analysis variables and control variables, plus statistical processing.

Results

Results show that older people make a greater number of care-related trips (43% of trips), outside of peak hours, and with a higher proportion of active modes (mainly walking) than other groups. The prevalence of active modes is inversely related to income, being more dominant in low-income communes. Finally, results indicate that 70% of trips taken by older people are less than 5 km, with 48% less than 2 km. In this sense, older people are making most of their trips within their neighborhoods.

Conclusions

The above poses significant challenges for public policy and urban health aimed at the elderly, especially regarding investment in urban equipment, green areas and commercial or community equipment, as well as the design of safe and suitable sidewalks for the elderly. Building a city of proximity and age-friendly streets seems to be an urgent challenge for Chilean cities.