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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2023

Daily mobility of elderly: processes of eviction and processes of avoidance of metropolitan core cities?

Résumé

According to the latest Lille mobility survey (EMD, 2016) in 2016, people aged 55 and over (nearly 300,000 people) make 120,000 more trips by car each day than in 2006 (+ 30% increase). This can be explained by the greater demographic weight of the "55 and over" population (+ 9%), by their increased mobility (+ 6%) and by their greater use of the car (whose modal share has increased by 11%). They make more than 6 out of 10 trips by car (62%), which is higher than the average for metropolitan areas (57%) (Plan de Mobilité MEL, 2022). The perspective of a sustainable mobility public policy explicitly targeting seniors drives our investigation. The new seniors (baby boomers) seem to be very fond of their car to the point that a clear increase in trips by car for all other purposes than work/study is observed when they retire (Mertiny, Meissonnier, 2021). Proportionally to the working population elderly use the car more often for their daily trips. This finding is counter-intuitive since retirees are notoriously less constrained in their schedules than working people. This particular availability could have promoted the use of slow or intermittent modes (public transportation, active modes). How can we understand this tropism towards the car use among older people? We will put forward the hypothesis of a double process of eviction and avoidance of metropolitan core cities (where walking and public transport are easy). And symmetrically we can see a relegation or polarization (depending on the point of view) on the peripheral urban areas, where accessibility is almost exclusively by car. On behalf of the European Metropolis of Lille, we are currently conducting a longitudinal survey on the mobility of elderly over the period 2020-2024. One of the goals of this survey is to better understand the changing travel behavior of the baby boomers. This survey includes a quantitative part - quota with a sample of 1000 seniors (65 years and older) - and a qualitative part - comprehensive semi-structured interviews (face-to-face first then by telephone due to the COVID epidemy) with a diversified panel of 27 households over 65 years old. More than the rest of the population elderly are detered from going to the city centre of Lille. And if they live in Lille, they flee the hypercentre. On the one hand, they complain about the lack of accessibility by car, which shows a process of avoidance linked with public policies to reduce the offer of parking space, increasing price and number of paid parking spaces, more complex traffic patterns for motorists... On the other hand they complain of a process of eviction linked to their age in public transport and public space in Lille: difficulties with digital tools in preparing a public transport journey, great confusion in the various fare and ticketing offers, feelings of insecurity mainly caused by dirtyness and an awareness of their own vulnerability. As they appreciate the convenience of peripheral shopping areas, weekly used when they were working, the new senior citizens are therefore more likely to turn to them than to the city centres for most of their activities (shopping, but also health and leisure services). In so doing, they make their dependence on the car last for their daily travel. This would explain this new tropism for the car use in the 65-80 age group.

Domaines

Sociologie
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Dates et versions

halshs-04373722, version 1 (05-01-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-04373722 , version 1

Citer

Joël Meissonnier, Fabrice Hasiak, Maria Tebar. Daily mobility of elderly: processes of eviction and processes of avoidance of metropolitan core cities?: The case of the Lille metropolis, France. Swiss Mobility Conference, UNIL Lausanne, Sep 2023, Lausanne, France. ⟨halshs-04373722⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 07/04/2024
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