The Value of Public Transportation for Improving the Quality of Life for the Rural Elderly (UTCM 11-08-74)

Transportation for the rural elderly is an increasing concern as baby boomers age and young people continue to exit rural communities. As the elderly are no longer able to drive themselves, they rely on alternate forms of transportation, including public transportation systems. However, such systems are often not a good substitute for driving a private car, especially in rural areas. This study focuses on non-medical transportation; medical transportation is addressed in the literature and is more widely available to the elderly. Because expanded rural transportation systems likely will be funded by taxpayers, an understanding of their preferences and willingness-to-pay for non-medical transportation options is essential. To fulfill this objective, a choice experiment survey was administered to taxpayers in three counties (Atascosa, Polk, and Parker) in Texas and to students at Texas A&M University. Results indicate that taxpayers value transportation services for the elderly and are willing to support them. They value more flexible options over base levels of the attributes presented, but they may not always prefer the most flexible options. Respondents' willingness to pay for attributes was similar across counties, but differences in socio-demographic coefficients suggests that transportation systems may need to be customized to meet local needs. Furthermore, the cost of improvements to the transportation systems may be more than county residents are willing to pay. Students' willingness-to-pay was generally higher than that of county residents, and the variation in students' willingness to pay was smaller. However, students and county residents ranked the value of transportation attributes similarly, suggesting that students may be a good convenience sample for behavioral questions but less so for policy matters.