Is This Your First Time Here? Older Adults and Mode-Switching on a New Local Bus Route in Philadelphia

A primary justification for transit is that it can draw people out of cars, yet previous research on new transit routes suggests that few users formerly drove for that trip. However, despite public transit’s potential to help seniors maintain their mobility, older adults ride transit less than working-age travelers. We explore these two core issues—mode-switching and transit use among the elderly—in a case study of Route 49, a new local bus route in Philadelphia. The route connects two low-income neighborhoods with a jobs-rich area and is the first new local bus route to have been added to Philadelphia’s network in over a decade. We conducted over 350 on-board intercept surveys of riders in the 6 months following Route 49’s start of service in early 2019. We found that compared with working-age riders, adults aged 65 plus were more likely to have taken their surveyed trip before Route 49 and less likely to be new Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority users. This suggests that older adults have travel needs that remain more stable over time. Older adults also took more complex trips and were less likely to use Route 49 to commute. Given the limited incidence of mode-switching and the distinct travel behaviors of older adults in our data, we strongly recommend that agencies consider the needs of older adults and current riders, rather than overly emphasizing trip generation from new users.