title: Travel behaviour change in old age: the role of critical incidents in public transport.
abstract: Older people's travel behaviour is affected by negative or positive critical incidents in the public transport environment. With the objective of identifying such incidents during whole trips and examining how travel behaviour had changed, we have conducted in-depth interviews with 30 participants aged 65-91 years in the County of Stockholm, Sweden. Out of 469 incidents identified, 77 were reported to have resulted in travel behaviour change, 67 of them in a negative way. Most critical incidents were encountered in the physical environment on-board vehicles and at stations/stops as well as in pricing/ticketing. The findings show that more personal assistance, better driving behaviour, and swift maintenance of elevators and escalators are key facilitators that would improve predictability in travelling and enhance vulnerable older travellers' feeling of security. The results demonstrate the benefit of involving different groups of end users in future planning and design, such that transport systems would meet the various needs of its end users.
authors.affiliation: Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sundling
authors.affiliation: Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mats E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hellqvist
authors.affiliation: SP-Technical Research Institute of Sweden, P.O. Box 857, 501 15 Borås, Sweden.
authors.forename: Leslie R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Pendrill
authors.affiliation: SP-Technical Research Institute of Sweden, P.O. Box 857, 501 15 Borås, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ragne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Emardson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden ; Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 210, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Birgitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Berglund
keywords: Critical incidents; Older people; Public transport; Qualitative research; Travel behaviour