Oasis – Open architecture for Accessible Services Integration and Standardization

3.User modelling

In addition to the benchmarking, an interview survey was realised within OASIS, order to identify elderly users’ specific needs. In specific, questionnaires related to Autonomous Mobility and Smart Workplaces application were collected through face-to-face interviews in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania and the UK.

The number of end-users and carers interviewed per site were as following:

• 
  Bulgaria: MCA (12 carers and 40 users)
  
• 
  Greece: CERTH-HIT and INFOTRIP (12 carers and 40 users)
  
• 
  Italy: Mizar and CRF (10 carers and 32 users)
  
• 
  Romania: BluePoint - IT (2 carers & 10 users)
  
• 
  UK: UNEW (2 carers & 10 users)
  

The interviewed end-users and carers originated from:

• 
  BG: elderly from elderly care house in Glavinitza village–Pazardzhik, daily care home for elderly people in Plovdiv and Sliven, and people who live alone in Plovdiv, Sliven and Panagiurishte (completed in May–June 2008).
  
• 
  IT: in contact through ATAF with AUSER (association of older people operating at national level) via Florence local association (completed in June-July-August 2008).
  
• 
  RO: various individual elderly, as well as people from the DIRECŢIA GENERALĂ DE ASISTENŢĂ SOCIALĂ A MUNICIPIULUI BUCUREŞTI, the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest and few other organisations (completed in July-August 2008).
  
• 
  GR: users were recruited from recreational centres for the elderly, and young elderly from an outpatient clinic (completed in June-July-August 2008).
  
• 
  UK: Users through "Years Ahead" in Newcastle (affiliated with the IAH - Institute for Ageing and Health - Newcastle University; completed in July-August 2008).
  

For every site, consent forms were signed by all interviewed people, and those are being kept by the interviewing organisations.

1. Autonomous Mobility applications - Public transport (for elderly users, and their carers that report on elderly users behaviour)

   1. Profiles of interviewed end-users in the different countries

The end-users were in all interviewed countries similar with regards to their age range, the UK being the exception as there were no interviews with young elderly. These users had few disabilities (15 users reported having a disability).

In terms of sexes, there were slightly more female interviewees (70) than male interviewees (62), but this also reflects more ore less the higher percentage of European elderly that are female¹. Only exception was Italy where 2/3 of the interviewees were male, and in Bulgaria where 70% of the interviewees were female.

2. The regularity of usage of public transport and its purposes

Asked for what purpose they use public transport, following responses were provided:

Social activities, reaching social and public services and leisure time are the predominant purposes. This is quite similar in all pilot countries.

Bulgarian interviewees mainly use public transport for shorter trips, opposed to Greece and Romania where public transport is used for longer trips. In Italy and the UK, this is rather equally spread among shorter and longer trips.

With the exception of Romania, all other interviewees indicated that to some extent, they do not always travel on their own when using the public transport, rather are accompanied by their husband/wife, friends, or family. In Italy, UK and Greece it is even a majority that mostly travels with someone accompanying them.

Bulgarian, Greek and UK interviewees tend to start a travel being the least prepared, while Romanian and Italian interviewees indicated the highest degree of preparedness before undertaking a travel by public transport. When we look at the ways how they do prepare themselves, following result was obtained:

Calls to support public transport centres are among the most popular ways of preparing a trip in all countries, with the exception of Italy where this is not being used. Assistance by friends and family scored also high in all countries, except for Romania.

If we have a look now to the kind of information interviewees are looking for while travelling with the public transport, following results were obtained:



Figure 15: Requested information to prepare a trip beforehand, using public transport (in percentage of total interviewees per country)

The time table is the most sought after information among interviewees in all countries, together with the time table of the return trip. Route descriptions and station locations are of considerable less concern to the interviewees.

With the exception of Romanian interviewees, a majority of the interviewees faces problems when travelling with the public transport. Mainly the train and bus created problems for the interviewees, also because they are the most preferred means of transportation in most countries as reported earlier. Following graphics provide an overview of the main problems that occurred for each transport mode separately per country.

Too high steps and lack of information is a recurring problem. Striking is that the UK reports as main problem the fact of lack of available seats. Equally, the National Railways often do not provide information about the delays of the trains, causing also problems for the passengers with connection journeys.

Trams are not available in Greece and UK and have therefore not been taken into consideration. Main problem identified for the trams in Bulgaria was the lack of available seats, while Italy and Rome indicated as main problem the lack of information regarding delays on the network. High steps were perceived as a problem in all 3 countries.

The metro is also having problems with high steps (only problem reported in Greece), while Romanian interviewees indicated the lack of accessible stations as a main and only problem, and the UK the lack of available seats. Italian interviewees identified a plethora of problems, the main one being the too high steps.

A multitude of problems are being identified in all countries. However the main ones are that for the bus mode as well, steps are considered high, as well as there is a lack of available seats (especially in Greece and the UK. Also the lack of available information in cases of delay is considered being a main problem, especially then in Italy and Romania.

Difficulties with taxi transport mode were not mentioned in Romania and the UK. In the other countries, the un-accommodated seats were considered to be a main problem, as well as in Greece and Bulgaria the uncertainty where to find a taxi.

A majority of the Romanian (all), UK and Bulgarian respondents indicate that they sometimes combine public transport modes, while a minority is doing so in Greece.

This combination of modes does result in problems in all countries:

The main problem seems to be the fact that timetables of the various transport modes are resulting in non-correspondences between the various modes. Also the inaccessibility of some of the modes is reported.

Almost in all countries, a majority uses support when travelling, with Romania heading since all interviewees indicated they use support while travelling.

This support is maybe surprisingly in most cases (with exception of Italy where maps are preferred) provided via mobile contact with someone who provides assistance.

3. The regularity of usage of private transport and its purposes

The usage of private transport means is in all countries quite similar, namely the car and on foot, and with a minority using a bike (but not in Greece and Romania). A motorbike is, with the exception of “motorbike frenzy” Italy, never used.

Private transport is in all countries mainly used for medium to long range trips, while the UK has the largest number of users for short range trips.

The usage of the private transport is mostly for social, leisure and recreational activities, while business activities are quite limited supported through private transport (this makes sense since the degree of professional activity among the interviewees is quite limited as was indicated at the beginning). This is different in Bulgaria and Romania where a larger number of interviewees indicated they also use private transport for business purposes, but this consistent with the higher number of interviewees that indicated they were still working.

Private transport is mostly used on a daily basis in Italy and the UK, while the other countries have a more sporadic, weekly usage.

Interviewees mostly never travel on their own, with the exception of Romania where all respondents indicated they always travel on their own.

However, with the exception of Bulgaria and Greece, most do conduct the private transport mode, with Italy showing an absolute majority of the interviewees being the conductor as displayed in below graphic.



Figure 31: Conducting the private transport mode (in percentage of total interviewees per country)

Preparing of trip beforehand, with what kind of information



Figure 32: Preparing a trip beforehand, while using private transport (in percentage of total interviewees per country)

The preparation of trips beforehand is quite similar to that of the public transport modes. The majority of the Bulgarian and UK interviewees never prepare beforehand, while in Romania, all respondents indicated they prepare themselves before using a private transport mode.

The origin of the support is obtained mainly via aid from family or friends, but in 3 countries also via info obtained through the internet, and in Greece and Romania also to a large extent via a call to a public support centre.

The main topics concerning which information is being sought regards the travel itinerary (including maps), but also weather conditions and traffic conditions. Romanian interviews expressed a big interest in having information on sites of interest in the town of destination.

The experienced difficulties when travelling with private transport were mainly limited to the usage of the car, and were manifold as is demonstrated in following graphic.

Traffic jams, aggressive drivers, limited visibility and lack of street name signs are omnipresent in all countries, while also travelling at night is problematic for interviewees in most countries.

With the exception of Italy and the UK, the use of mobiles to contact someone (family, friends) for assistance is ranked very high, followed by the use of a map. GPS is hardly used, except by interviewees in the UK.



Figure 36: Support used while using private transport (in percentage of total interviewees per country)

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