Évolution des pratiques de mobilité dans la vieillesse : un suivi longitudinal auprès d’un groupe de banlieusards âgés

A majority of elderly suburbanites aspires to age at home. In a car-dependent environment, access to mobility may be a key dimension for the maintenance of such aspirations. However, few researches can confirm the temporal evolution of seniors’ residential aspirations, as well as the transformations of their mobility in the territory. In that regard, a group of a hundred and two aged suburbanites living in the agglomeration of Québec city in Canada were investigated twice in 1999 and 2006. Out of these, seventy are still living at the same address in 2006. Unexpectedly, respondents who have moved are not those for whom a move seemed to be expected in 1999. In 2006, fifty-seven out of a hundred and two, now aged from 61 to 89 years in 2006, responded to a postal questionnaire (62 %). Comparative analysis of elderly suburbanites’ mobility uses have been produced by using descriptive statistics coupled to spatial analysis. For seventeen subjects, their daily mobility remains unchanged, for sixteen suburbanites a decrease is observed, but for fifteen others their mobility has now increased. For the last nine subjects, their mobility has been transformed without being able to statute for a greater or declined mobility. Increasing mobility seems to be explained by socio-spatial factors, especially in regard to the relocation of urban amenities outside the suburban neighborhood. The individual factor stressing the access to automobile, including age and level of autonomy, seems to explain a reduction of mobility.