Research Programme on Ageing and the Life Course (RPALC) Workshop - Health, Wellbeing, Quality of Life and Outdoor Spaces – Active travel in neighbourhood areas and its implications for active ageing: Further results of the SOLUTIONS Project - travel within suburban areas across England Paul Millar WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments

London Bristol Cambridge Newcastle Solutions suburban locations across England

‘SOLUTIONS’ Sustainability of land-use and transport in outer suburbs Neighbourhood travel patterns in suburbs of Newcastle, Bristol, Cambridge and London – 12 case study areas, 1619 responses Suburbs were selected for being ‘pod’, ‘cell’, ‘cluster’ and ‘linear’ Outcome – no clear development style to encourage active travel Main finding was a substantial variety of travel patterns, including age across the different towns and suburbs. The significance of this variety is that this suggests a wide range of different travel behaviour between people of similar ages across the country that gives hope for interventions and learning from experience.

Case Study Neighbourhood Characteristics NeighbourhoodCityHome ownership (%)No car households (%)Deprivation rank Bradley StokeBristol82430,457 to 31,951 Filton AvenueBristol59295,408 to 21,304 ThornburyBristol831313,499 to 32,404 Bar HillCambridge881027,652 to 31,095 Cherry HintonCambridge662012,397 to 31,072 TrumpingtonCambridge622523,774 to 31,604 BarkingLondon57435,050 to 10,279 BroxbourneLondon83138,487 to 27,628 HarrowLondon66287,487 to 28,356 Backworth & ShiremoorNewcastle47115,080 to 15,826 CramlingtonNewcastle74134,924 to 30,928 Great ParkNewcastle961628,837 to 31,794 Sources dated 2004

Case Study Neighbourhood Characteristics NeighbourhoodCityHome ownership (%)No car households (%)Deprivation rank Bradley StokeBristol82430,457 to 31,951 Filton AvenueBristol59295,408 to 21,304 ThornburyBristol831313,499 to 32,404 Bar HillCambridge881027,652 to 31,095 Cherry HintonCambridge662012,397 to 31,072 TrumpingtonCambridge622523,774 to 31,604 BarkingLondon57435,050 to 10,279 BroxbourneLondon83138,487 to 27,628 HarrowLondon66287,487 to 28,356 Backworth & ShiremoorNewcastle47115,080 to 15,826 CramlingtonNewcastle74134,924 to 30,928 Great ParkNewcastle961628,837 to 31,794 Sources dated 2004

Case Study Neighbourhood Characteristics NeighbourhoodCityHome ownership (%)No car households (%)Deprivation rank Bradley StokeBristol82430,457 to 31,951 Filton AvenueBristol59295,408 to 21,304 ThornburyBristol831313,499 to 32,404 Bar HillCambridge881027,652 to 31,095 Cherry HintonCambridge662012,397 to 31,072 TrumpingtonCambridge622523,774 to 31,604 BarkingLondon57435,050 to 10,279 BroxbourneLondon83138,487 to 27,628 HarrowLondon66287,487 to 28,356 Backworth & ShiremoorNewcastle47115,080 to 15,826 CramlingtonNewcastle74134,924 to 30,928 Great ParkNewcastle961628,837 to 31,794 Sources dated 2004

Case Study Neighbourhood Characteristics NeighbourhoodCityHome ownership (%)No car households (%)Deprivation rank Bradley StokeBristol82430,457 to 31,951 Filton AvenueBristol59295,408 to 21,304 ThornburyBristol831313,499 to 32,404 Bar HillCambridge881027,652 to 31,095 Cherry HintonCambridge662012,397 to 31,072 TrumpingtonCambridge622523,774 to 31,604 BarkingLondon57435,050 to 10,279 BroxbourneLondon83138,487 to 27,628 HarrowLondon66287,487 to 28,356 Backworth & ShiremoorNewcastle47115,080 to 15,826 CramlingtonNewcastle74134,924 to 30,928 Great ParkNewcastle961628,837 to 31,794 Sources dated 2004

Modal split by age class Solutions data 2009

Modal split by age and distance class Solutions data 2009

Number of trips by purpose per age class Solutions data 2009

Average number of weekly trips by purpose per respondent Solutions data 2009

Percentage of trips by purpose per age class Solutions data 2009

Average weekly distance by mode and age class Solutions data 2009

Regression lines of active travel distance decay for selected trip purposes Solutions data 2010

Summary – From a reasonably representative selection of English cities :- Age, while providing a significant difference to younger adults’ travel, still showed a reasonably stable and comparable amount of active travel to younger adults. 90% of those aged over 75 still happy to walk for up to 400m, over 70% over 800m, 40% will still choose to walk up to 1.2km Older adults still do what younger adults do when actively travelling to local shops and facilities. In suburban areas, travel is remarkably stable for adults of all ages. Older adults seem to do more locally than younger adults but again, much the same thing – what seems to change is a reduction in activity levels in terms of distance but not much in terms of activity. The main finding is that habits of activity and variety of active travel behaviour is established much earlier than older age

Acknowledgements This research was undertaken by the University of the West of England between 2005 and Led by Professor Hugh Barton, WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments, it included, Tatiana Calve-Blanco, Tom Calvert, Matt Breeze, Marcus Grant, Sarah Hills, Michael Horswell, Paul Millar, Louis Rice, David Sweeting and Yo Wood.