Transport problems of disadvantaged people : case studies of the elderly in four areas of Sheffield.

The major concern of this thesis is to describe and identify the main transport problems which may affect the elderly's levels of participation in activities, and also to examine the relationship between transport problems and
the elderly's levels of participation. The main objectives of this thesis are: to
identify the main activities in which the elderly participate; to identify the
transport problems which may affect or prevent the elderly from taken part
in some or all activities; to identify which activities the elderly fail to achieve
and the level of participation they wish to achieve and the main reasons which
underline these problems; to examine how the characteristics of individuals
affect the use of transport methods; and finally to identify the main transport difficulties encountered by the elderly in using transport system. This
thesis is divided into twelve chapters, which can be structured into four main
parts: the first part reviews the literature on transport policy for the elderly;
the second part includes background information to the research problems,
the survey methodology and the case studies; the third part contains detailed
discussion of the main transport problems affecting the elderly's participation in the organised activities (from the organisers' point of view), the fourth
part contains discussions of achieved activities, desired level of participation
in activities, transport methods used by the elderly, and finally transport difficulties encountered by the elderly; this includes fully achieved, modified, and
frustrated activities, in order to explain the relationship between the transport
needs and demands of the elderly people.
The main survey method used in collecting the data was a postal questionnaire
and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) was used in analysis.
The thesis concludes by providing a summary of the main findings and the
implications of the results obtained in the study.