Barriers to Transportation in Rural Communities: Perspective of Older Adult Users

Rural older adults who require transportation assistance face more challenges than their urban counterparts. By focusing on a historically underserved population, this study examined specific barriers from the perspective of older adult users and explored potential policy and technology solutions.

A cross-sectional study was conducted throughout rural Wisconsin to identify specific barriers to transportation, uncover personal factors associated with identified barriers, and measure causal relationships between identified barriers and travel satisfaction.

A total of 580 older adult respondents from 92% of rural counties across the state provided clear answers regarding specific transportation barriers. Of these, 67.6% identified at least one barrier, but only 12.8% had stopped using transportation due to any identified barriers. Top barriers to accessing transportation included service hours, service areas, trip destinations, getting in/out of service vehicles, service reservations, and operational scheduling. Although specific barriers were associated with different sociodemographics, trip purposes, and frequency of transportation usage, logistic regression findings suggested that concerns about service hours, service areas, and service reservation were the only 3 major determinants driving rural older adults' attitudes toward transportation usage.

Rural older adults relying on transportation assistance have demonstrated diverse needs and constraints. Rural transportation could provide better support by extending service availability in terms of hours, areas, and destinations, improving door-to-door accessibility by providing "arm through arm" services, enhancing service responsiveness and reliability via age-friendly technology solutions, and implementing a sliding scale subsidy program that takes income level and trip frequency into account.