Developing planning and forecasting tools for age-friendly rural and community transportation alternatives: a focus on volunteer driver programs to facilitate older person mobility and safety

这项拟议的研究计划将研究有组织的社区交通计划（如志愿者司机计划），为交通工程专业开发科学工具，以支持计划规划，设计，运营和管理，以最大限度地满足依赖汽车的老年人的安全和流动性需求。 预计到2056年，加拿大65岁以上的人口将增加两倍，而家庭规模将下降，这表明“朋友和家人”无法满足老年司机向乘客过渡时未来的交通需求。社区交通计划提供了一个解决方案，但围绕社区交通计划的集体知识体系通常是案例研究或轶事性质。 这些计划在满足流动性需求的有效性、地点成功的潜力、满足需求增长的可扩展性以及通过促进医疗风险驾驶员的过渡对公共安全的贡献方面缺乏科学的理解。 我建议通过交通工程和规划透镜来研究社区交通项目，从而使其正式化。

This proposed research program will study organized community transportation programs (such as volunteer driver programs) to develop scientific tools for the transportation engineering profession to support program planning, design, operation, and management to maximize utility in meeting safety and mobility needs of car-dependent older adults as they age.  The expected tripling of the Canadian population over the age of 65 years by 2056, and declining family sizes, suggests that “friends and family” cannot satisfy future transportation demand of older drivers as they transition to passengers. Community transportation programs offer a solution, but the collective body ofknowledge surrounding community transportation programs is often case-study or anecdotal in nature.  There is a lack of scientific understanding of these programs with respect to their effectiveness for meeting mobility needs, their potential for success by location, theirscalability to meet growth in demand, and their contribution to public safety by facilitating the transition of a medically-at-risk driver.  I propose formalizing the deployment of community-based transportation programs by studying them through a transportation engineering and planning lens.