12-10-2016, 01:29 PM
(12-10-2016, 12:33 PM)MidTowner Wrote: I find his assertion that the aging of the population will result in a decline in transit demand to be very interesting, because I would assume the exact opposite impact. He says that retired people will take less transit trips than "economically active" [he should say "employed": obviously retired people are economic actors], which may be true. But older people are more likely to suffer health problems that result in them losing their driver's licenses, and could then rely on transit almost exclusively if walking becomes impractical for the same reasons.
There must be studies out there that show how this plays out, but those losing driver's licences for health reasons are relatively few and by the time it happens (or they decide to stop driving for whatever reason), the elderly are simply not going out as much, whatever the means of transportation. This could change in coming years as the boomers hit their "golden years", I suppose. It seems to me, however, that students and daily commuters are the only real drivers of the numbers, although I will defer to those who may know more.