ISOLATION AND MOBILITY OF ELDERLY PEOPLE: INTRA-REGIONAL DISPARITIES

In current ageing society with low fertility rates the population moves to the cities and large urban areas. According to WHO [1], it is expected that 70% of population in 2050 will be urban. The size of population in small towns and rural areas is shrinking and this trend is supposed to continue. Fall in population size brings along other consequences, such as downsize of business and social, health and other public services. All these processes may be particularly problematic for elderly people inhabiting lowly populated areas or distant neighbourhoods. Studies on mobility show that elderly people are a heterogeneous group in terms of travel patterns and choice of a transport mode [2], and divide them into several segments. The different segments are distinguished also based on social networks or accessibility of transport systems. The key question of the paper is what are the mobility patterns of people aged 60+ and how do they differ in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. The mobility of the elderly people will be described in relation to their employment and to the economic and social infrastructure of the inhabited area. South Moravian region has been selected for the analysis. The empirical analysis is based on quantitative data on mobility from travel survey collected within the Transport Model AT-CZ co-funded by the European Territorial Cooperation Austria Czech Republic 2007 - 2013.