A study of senior-friendly transportation services in Beijing

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2020With the increasing population of the elders in China, many social challenges arise. To make travel easier for the elderly, new technology can be used to increase transportation services. This thesis will use successful cases around the world as examples and conclude with useful planning and design approaches to use in Beijing. Based on the successful cases, I created a survey to learn about the kind of technology and services that are preferred by seniors in Beijing. The main focus of this thesis is on how to improve senior-friendly transportation services in Beijing. First, the literature review will introduce how emerging new services affect seniors’ lifestyles, and the successful examples in other cities or countries. After this, it is necessary to learn what the elders’ specific travel needs in Beijing are by collecting survey responses —and then answer how transportation agencies should implement mobility services for the elderly. Last, I make recommendations regarding how to fill the elderly care services gap through new technology. The thesis is based on a mixed-research method. At first, I took the results from previous studies to identify senior-friendly transportation services. I included and analyzed successful examples and considered how to learn from these successes in Beijing. I created hypotheses of which kind of services would be most helpful to the elders. After that, I used a survey to determine the elders’ transportation preferences, understand their needs, and to rank the order of importance of the alternative services. I analyzed the survey results and based on the research, provided some suggestions about adding supporting facilities to public transportation systems, and some new technology, such as autonomous driving, as a future trend of senior-friendly transportation system. Additionally, door-to-door services for helping seniors travel in Beijing are highly desirable, and thus a community shuttle bus is an excellent service to consider