Abstract
Promoting active modes of transport, such as walking and cycling, has a positive impact on environmental sustainability and the health and well-being of citizens. This study explores the elderly population’s perception of comfort, safety and security when using active modes of transport. It begins with a systematic review of the literature considering research works that relate to active travel, the elderly population, and random forest. Then a questionnaire was applied to 653 participants and the results were analyzed. This analysis consisted of using statistics to evaluate the socio-demographic profile, the preferences regarding the use of active modes of this population, and the importance given to each dimension: comfort, safety, distance, and time, comparing these indicators through the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test and the Random Forest algorithm. The results showed that people over 56 years old walk as much as younger people. Furthermore, the importance given by this group of people to indicators referring to active modes is related to safety and security, distance, time, and comfort. The statistical results of the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test indicate the most important indicators: Adequate Travel Distance & Time and Existence of Commercial Areas by age group [0–55], and Absence of Allergenics and Existence of Green Areas by age group [56+]. Finally, the Random Forest algorithm provides the relative importance for both age groups, [0–55] and [56+], where the indicators that stand out in the [56+] age group, which is the focus of our study, are air quality, adequate travel distance & time, adequate crowd density, adequate thermal sensation, absence of allergenic, good street illumination level, adequate traffic volume, and adequate noise level.
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This paper is a result of the project Safe Cities - Inovação para Construir Cidades Seguras, with the reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-041435, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement.
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Felício, S. et al. (2023). Investigating the Perception of the Elderly Population About Comfort, Safety and Security When Using Active Modes of Transport. In: Cunha, A., M. Garcia, N., Marx Gómez, J., Pereira, S. (eds) Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare. MobiHealth 2022. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 484. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32029-3_26
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