Barriers to the Use of Public Transportation among Older Adults in Lahore, Pakistan: A Psychological Perspective
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Transport is crucial for healthy aging; however, majority of the older adults are dependent on others globally, particularly in developing countries. Age-sensitive transport is essential for positive experiences, with psychosocial factors impacting the public transport use. Therefore, the current study focused on psychological factors as to why the older adults in underdeveloped nations, such as Pakistan, find it difficult to use public transportation. Data was collected from 384 people aged 60 or over in Lahore, Pakistan through a questionnaire survey using simple random sampling. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and ANOVA were employed to assess the socioeconomic characteristics and mean differences in psychosocial factors across various demographics including age, gender, and socioeconomic status using SPSS software. Statistical results indicated that due to the lack of age-sensitive infrastructure, older adults possess poorly perceived norms, unfavorable beliefs and attitudes, and limited personal ability to use public transportation. T-test and ANOVA results further indicated that aged people had more negative attitude, while the lower-income and lesser-educated older adults perceived the norms positively and were more likely to use public transport services. Hence, the findings clearly explained the interplay of socio-physical barriers in public transport environment which significantly influences the older adults' psychological perspectives. The current study suggested that soft and hard transport interventions should be implemented together. This is because they are crucial to inducing positive public transport services for older adults.
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