Transport for the elderly - what happens in rural areas?

This paper describes work being carried out in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland to examine the transport needs of older people in rural areas both north and south of the border. The project commenced in July 2009 and will be completed in July 2010. Therefore, at the time of writing of this paper the project is still on-going. This paper is structured as follows. The first section sets out a literature review of research into the transport needs of older people. The paper will then go on to describe the current situation regarding transport for older people in rural areas in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland and will set out some of the policies and projects that are currently in place to provide transport for older people in rural areas. The paper will also contrast the situation in the 2 countries and will set out what improvements and changes to policy are needed to bring about an improvement in the status of transport for older people in Ireland. Finally, the paper describes the project objectives, methodology and the focus groups that are currently taking place in Ireland and Northern Ireland to examine the transport needs of older people in rural areas.