Initial situation

As people live longer, societies must use ageing-in-place strategies enabling healthy ageing. Community mobility is essential to age-in-place, as older adults need to access medical facilities, stores, and other activities in their communities to maintain their health and well-being and to support their social participation. The aim of this Action is to develop an overarching framework to guide European and country-specific processes in the areas of driving, driving retirement, and usable accessible transportation for older adults. This action will co-ordinate a cohesive program of tasks in four interlinked working groups mobilising international and cross-cultural development in the areas of:

1. assessing driving fitness and retraining of driving capacities;
2. driving retirement and transition planning to maintain community mobility; and
3. usability and accessibility of alternative transportation modes, including walking and public transport.

Objectives

The objectives of this COST Action are to review available evidence and relevant advancements to enable the Action to undertake cross-country comparative studies and analyses of policies, interventions, and best practices, compile up-to-date resources and toolkits with dissemination via publications, public conferences, workshops, and production of online resources.

Specifically, the Action includes four working groups:

1. Assessing and / or retraining of driving fitness.
2. Transition planning to maintain community mobility.
3. Usability and accessibility of public transport, and community mobility.
4. Communication, dissemination, knowledge transfer and support.

Methods

The Action includes different Methods to reach the Actions Objectives such as Systematic Reviews, Cross-jurisdictional analyses, Case studies based on participatory research design, Cross-country policy analyses, Workshops and consensus meetings with experts.

Expected Results and Impact

The Action’s outputs will provide guidance for professionals and stakeholders across Europe and internationally on how to implement methods of enabling older adults’ community participation through effective and safe use of all available transportation options. A roadmap for knowledge transfer will be developed, including post-graduate research student exchange. The Action will contribute to the development and sustainability of communities of practice that will continue to function after the Action has come to an end.