Public Transport Impacts Older Adults’ Loneliness

Improving public transport is often assumed to reduce social isolation among older adults, but evidence from Hong Kong shows that the effects are not straightforward and vary by gender. Using a natural experiment from a newly opened metro line, the study finds that older men report higher levels of social isolation and loneliness than older women, and the new metro did not reduce these feelings for men. In contrast, older women actively used the metro to expand their social networks, which helped them feel less lonely. The findings highlight that infrastructure improvements alone are insufficient: transport policy and services need to be gender-sensitive to effectively support the social wellbeing of older adults.