Do the Elderly Need Wider Parking Spaces? Evidence from Experimental and Questionnaire Surveys

Weite Lu, Chunqin Zhang, Xunyou Ni and Haiqiang Liu
Additional contact information
Weite Lu: School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Chunqin Zhang: School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Xunyou Ni: School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Haiqiang Liu: School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: An excellent parking system can affect the willingness of the elderly to drive an automobile for travel and for participating in social activities. However, few studies have examined the requirement of width of current parking spaces for the elderly and which factors influenced the selection of wider or narrower parking space by older participants. Two studies have been carried out in order to fill gaps for these issues. The first one examined minimum width by having 130 individuals aged 60+ alight into parking spaces of different widths. The results showed that most older individuals needed wider-than-standard parking spaces. Some potential demographic factors were also examined by one-way analyses of variance. The second study was conducted to estimate the factors affecting selection of parking spaces that were wider or narrower than the standard. Based on analysis of data by a logistic regression model, the result presented that the selection was mainly affected by age, types of aids, driving experience, body mass index (BMI) and health condition. Finally, we propose a new concept of parking system, which will help older people with different needs to park safely and smoothly. These studies will promote the ability of governments to design more effective parking spaces to enhance freedom for older adults.

Keywords: the elderly; parking; width; one-way analyses of variance; logistic regression model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3800/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3800/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3800-:d:354878

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().