Travel Behavior of the Aging Boomers: Evidence from Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

In collaboration with the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, this project will show how different types of communities affect older adult travel behavior and to thus derive lessons for the design of neighborhoods where older adults reside. This phase of an ongoing research project will enable us to compare data previously obtained on leading edge baby boomers (55-65 year olds) from suburban age-restricted communities to their counterparts in denser urban areas, particularly naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs). The results will be inserted directly into the active research base on the influence of the built environment on travel behavior and the growing interest in promoting active living settings, including for the aging. Despite some research in this area, there is little context-specific empirical evidence on local-level influences on boomers’ travel behavior and apparently none analyzing the effects of various types of age-specific communities. The proposed research aims to fill this gap.