| Summary |
As the global population ages, Taiwan is also facing the challenge of an aging society. Previous research has shown that when public transportation services are adequate, the elderly tend to use buses/coaches and other public transportation services. However, when public transportation services are insufficient, the elderly can only use private transportation to go out. This study aims to explore the transportation problems faced by the elderly in areas where public transportation is inconvenient in Taiwan's aging society. Through proposing a new type of transportation service (DRTS) that provides on-demand and flexible reservation services, this study seeks to understand the elderly's thoughts and acceptance of this new transportation service as a foundation for subsequent implementation of new transportation services.
To gain a preliminary understanding of the healthcare-seeking behavior of the elderly and their thoughts and acceptance of new transportation services, this study first held focus group discussions with elderly residents in the study area to discuss relevant issues and introduce the new transportation service. Through the focus group discussions, it was discovered that the elderly had preferences for healthcare-seeking locations and modes of transportation and had certain ideas and acceptable prices for new transportation services. After gaining a preliminary understanding of the medical behavior of older adults in the surveyed area and their thoughts on new transportation services, this study further designed a questionnaire to understand their ideas about new transportation services and the factors affecting their choice of transportation. During the questionnaire survey, new transportation services were first introduced, and older adults were asked about the new transportation service characteristics they valued, their willingness to use the services, the price they were willing to pay, and the purpose of their trip. When asking about their transportation preferences, the study used stated preference methods to let older adults imagine a situation where they could choose between different public transportation and new transportation services when going to the hospital. The study found that the top four new transportation service characteristics that older adults valued were the ability to specify pick-up and drop-off locations (such as their front door), phone reservations with a person to answer, flexible schedules that can be arranged according to their needs, and the use of low-floor buses for convenient boarding and alighting. The linear regression model for willingness to pay revealed that when older adults have mobility issues, they are willing to pay more to use new transportation services. The binary logistic regression model for whether to use new transportation services found that factors affecting older adults' choice to use new transportation services for medical purposes included age, walking time to the nearest bus station, and whether their current mode of transportation to the hospital is a taxi. The multinomial logit model for transportation choice found that the factors affecting older adults' choice of transportation were the total cost and age.
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