Age, disability and everyday mobility in London: An analysis of the correlates of ‘non-travel’ in travel diary data

Maintaining everyday mobility is important for health at older age. This paper explores one indicator of lack of mobility: not leaving the home on a particular day, which we term ‘non-travel’. We used travel diary data from London residents between 2005 and 2015 to identify the correlates of non-travel for adults. Rates of non-travel were associated with: female gender, unemployment, lack of access to a car, lack of travel concessions, increasing age, disability and being retired. In a logistic regression analysis, older age was independently associated with non-travel, with those aged 60–69, 70–79 and over 80 more likely than working age adults (odds ratios 1.76; 2.18; 3.88 respectively) to report non-travel than working age adults. London faces similar problems to other global cities, with an increasing older population, and policy obligations to shift further from private car based transport to public and active modes. This study has demonstrated that declining levels of mobility at older age in London are not due solely to leaving the labour market or to disability, and that the availability of transport helps reduce, but does not entirely mitigate, the barriers of older age and impairment. To ensure that cities are as health-promoting as possible, more attention is needed to guarantee transport systems foster mobility at older age.