Transportation contributes to nonmetropolitan elders' social integration by facilitating their social interactions, community participation, use of services and participation in social service programs. In this proposal we are interested in factors associated with effective transportation arrangements among elders living in a variety of relatively rural communities in Central New York and, in contrast, with the determinants of transportation disadvantage. The general analytical framework guiding the project is that rural elderly individuals construct their transportation arrangements in a variety of ways depending on their personal characteristics (ascribed and achieved), the nature of their social networks, and the attributes of their residential communities. Moreover, it recognizes that transportation arrangements can be disrupted or enhanced by changes in these factors. A panel survey will be conducted in Years 1, 3, and 5 to: a) describe and compare the social organization of transportation arrangements among nonmetropolitan elders; b) investigate the relative effectiveness of different transportation arrangements in maintaining social and community involvements and procuring goods and services; and c) determine how these transportation arrangements are altered as nonmetropolitan elders age, experience life course transitions, or undergo change in their helper networks, and we offered fewer formal transportation services. An educational intervention will be conducted in Year 4 to assist transportation disadvantaged elders, especially those who have recently lost transportation access because of life course transitions, to enhance the effectiveness of their transportation arrangements. The impact of this intervention for changing transportation-disadvantaged rural elders' knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding effective transportation will be evaluated in Year 5 with data collected in the survey's final wave.
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