Urban Form and Non-work Trip Patterns

PI: Dr Hou Yuting  (LKYCIC, SUTD)
Team: Ms Adithi Moogoor (LKYCIC, SUTD)

Non-work trips, including travel for shopping, social/personal, and recreational purposes are important for older people’s daily travel and activity patterns, particularly as they age out of the workforce and travel less frequently for work purposes. Compared with commuting trips, non-work trips are more discretionary in nature and likely to be affected by: (1) regional accessibility to economic activity concentrations, and (2) neighbourhood-level built environment factors. This research aims to understand older people’s daily non-work travel patterns and the correlation with urban form measures at both the macro-scale and micro-scale in the Singapore context. The first part of the research explores the spatial patterns of mobility characteristics of older adults (aged 55 and over) to identify “transport-disadvantaged” neighbourhoods where they are less inclined to travel, highly reliant on private vehicles and more likely to endure long distance/duration travel to reach their destinations. The second part of the research develops a disaggregate model to document the influence of urban form factors on older adults’ daily travel for various types of non-work activities.

The result of this research will provide useful implications for urban transportation planners and policy makers to improve the mobility of Singapore’s senior citizens and better integrate land use and transportation planning for the future.