User perspective of age-friendly transportation: A case study of Taipei City

User perspective of age-friendly transportation provides a solid base for initiating and evaluating improvement strategies. This study surveyed a sample of 610 older people in Taipei City. The respondents rated the degree of importance of 18 indicators, and their degree of satisfaction with 35 items, which were derived from these 18 indicators relating to age-friendly transportation. Rough Sets Theory (RST) and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) were used as qualitative and quantitative data mining approaches. Useful and simple decision rules regarding the perspective of age-friendly transportation can be obtained using RST. These decision rules involve policy implications. The application of IPA further facilitated the focuses of improvement strategies. Subsequently, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to evaluate improvement strategies. The results showed that the focuses and the priority ranking of the strategy scenarios were (1) training for bus drivers; (2) enhancing the universal design of transport stops and stations; (3) enhancing the quality of transit information and providing more pedestrian scrambles; (4) education for drivers and enforcement of driving rules; and (5) providing more age-friendly vehicles. Two out of five strategy scenarios are related to driver behavior. We strongly recommend that the future policy focus be on requiring people to be competent and courteous drivers.