Abstract
Transit systems in rural areas help elders maintain contact with social services, conduct business, and visit friends. Surveys of transit managers, area agency on aging (AAA) directors, and rural elders age 75 and over in Iowa were conducted in 1993 to determine if these groups believed that there is unmet need for transit among rural elders and to assess the groups' perceptions of transit service. Transit managers and AAA directors did believe that such unmet need exists and that it is caused largely by lack of information on the part of elders' and by agencies' difficulties in identifying elders in need. One-half of rural elders who did not use transit were unaware that it was provided. The level of knowledge among women was much higher in smaller towns than in larger communities. Elders who have actually used transit have a favorable opinion of it. Transit is seen as safe and dependable. Riders consider drivers to be courteous and few report that trips take too long. The level of satisfaction reported is somewhat lower when elders are asked about transit's flexibility, scheduling, and ease of use. Few riders believe that others need transit service more than they do or report that they would rather pay others to drive them than use transit. Nonusers were relatively indifferent to these issues, perhaps indicating less opposition to potential transit use than has often been supposed. Only a small fraction of riders would support general tax increases of $25 or $50 per year to increase transit service, although this response may reveal more about perceptions of taxes than about transit.
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