Session: Maintaining Mobility: Geographies of transport and ageing.

A combination of increases in life expectancy and better physical health means that older people are on average achieving higher mobility when compared with earlier generations, especially in terms of private mobility modes. This provides new challenges for the provision of transport services particularly in view of changes in ability to use certain forms of transport, changes in lifestyle and income associated with later life. Despite being in better health, and physically fitter than ever before, those aged 65 and over are the group most likely to be face difficulty when needing to travel, for example, they are more likely than younger people to be unable to walk or cycle for long periods of time, to have to give-up driving and have more difficulty in physically accessing public transport. Despite this, policy maintains extending independence and ageing in place as vital requirements to a dignified healthy later life without ever really addressing mobility issues.

We welcome papers which consider the transport geographies of ageing populations, including, but not limited to:

• A Holistic view of mobilities* in later life and the relationship to policy, practice and society. That mobilities may involve (but doesn’t have to) more than simply corporeal or literal mobility and may consider potential, imaginative or virtual aspects of mobility.

• Life-course approaches to mobility*. That life experience of mobility affects decisions, needs and desires for travel and mobility in later life.

• Person-centred approach* to mobility in later life, examining primarily the older person and their relationship to transport and mobility.

• Relationship-centred approach* in that mobility involves a relationship with the wider socio-political environment and other people that use and interact with that environment.

• Considering the *wider physical environmental context and acknowledging that mobility differs by context, for example spatial context (rural, urban, suburban, home and carehomes), temporal context (time and space) and speed (movement through space) all of which are not often considered in relation to the mobility of older people.
• Views on *wider societal challenges such as loneliness and isolation, civic participation, connectivity and health and wellbeing in relation to mobility.

Proposals for papers, with a title, a short abstract of 250 words and your full contact details, should be sent to the co-organisers Charles Musselwhite

mailto:c.b.a.musselwhite@swansea.ac.uk and Angela Curl mailto:angela.curl@glasgow.ac.uk by Friday 13th  February: