Modern Social Science Research

In recent years, as peoples living standards have risen, the demand for health care has increased. However, issues like an unreasonable distribution of health resources and insufficient service capacity in remote areas of Zhuhai City remain significant challenges. To delve deeper into the decision-making processes and actual accessibility of elderly individuals in urban and suburban areas when utilizing public transportation for medical purposes, this study innovatively combines the movement patterns of elderly passengers with real-time bus operation data, developing a travel chain model that accurately characterizes their transportation needs. Building on this model, we have developed a travel chain recognition technology tailored to elderly medical activities, capable of precisely capturing their actual medical travel needs and the characteristics of their temporal distribution. Additionally, by integrating real-time bus arrival data, we dynamically illustrate the impact of bus service efficiency on medical accessibility. The findings of this study not only offer a scientific foundation for optimizing public transportation strategies for elderly medical travel but also guide efforts to enhance the adaptability of urban public transportation systems to aging populations and promote a balanced and efficient distribution of medical resources.

Urban transportation; Travel behavior decisions; Regression analysis; Elderly passengers; Analysis of influencing factors