Quantifying the Geospatial Burden of Providing Rides to Older Adults Using Activity Spaces and Geographic Information Systems

Spatial mobility is vital for the well-being of older adults. Lack of adequate transportation can limit their access to healthcare, services, and social opportunities. For older adults who do not or no longer drive, receiving rides is their primary mode of transportation, but this reliance can burden their ride providers. Measuring and assessing the geospatial burden of providing rides is important for research and policies that aim to address the impact on ride providers and older adults’ unmet travel needs. In this manuscript, we propose an approach that collects data to assess ride providers’ geospatial activity spaces for their own routine activities and for providing rides. By comparing the two activities spaces, we suggest a possible method to operationalize geospatial ride-providing burden, using three potential burden indicators. Using data from a pilot study (N = 18 ride providers), we apply these burden indicators and correlate them to other indicators of burden (i.e., days/month giving rides and monetary costs, missed work, increased per-sonal stress). We conclude that the percentage of the ride-provision activity space that is outside the ride provider's regular activity space may be a useful indicator of geospatial burden of providing rides.