UTA Multidisciplinary Project Aims to Improve Transportation for Older Adults

Engineers and social workers at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) are using a $248,628 National Institute of Transportation and Communities grant to enhance transportation for seniors in assisted-living communities throughout the Dallas area, reports EurekAlert . Under UTA Professor Kate Hyun's guidance, the researchers will explore ways to increase seniors' willingness to try ride-sharing companies, which require basic computer skills. Fellow UTA Professor Kathy Lee said social work is an essential ingredient of this effort, as "so much of what we're talking about in this project deals with getting people to understand, accept, and learn that there are ways to offer better transportation that can empower them." UTA Professor Caroline Krejci is tasked with combining data collected by Lee and the results of Hyun's transportation analysis into a computational model that will enable the researchers to simulate the effects of various policies on older residents' transportation-related decisions and behaviors over time, in order to predict mobility outcomes. "Human behavior is complex, and a well-intentioned strategy to improve mobility for older adults might yield unexpected consequences," Krejci noted. "This model will help us to understand these complexities and provide data-driven recommendations for transportation policy."