Particularly in the United States, the process of ageing - and in particular the reduced ability to drive a car with increasing age - is seen as a major problem. This is because so many people have been car dependent for so long: there is relatively little experieince of use of buses in particular, and public transport in general. This issue has been identified by a number of researchers.

Research was carried out in 2007 to assess the effectiveness of a training programme. This was done at a major retirement complex in California, with a population of around 9000 and a local bus service connecting with a regional service to a subway system.

The training gave people information about the transport options, information sources and how to plan trips. It also included a bus tour of two major bus routes.

The primary transportation mode was identified by survey work before and after training, as was ridership of the local and regional bus network.

The main change in primary transportation mode after training was that car use dropped from 86.9% to 67.2%, and transit use increased from 1.6% to 16.4% (other respondents had reported equal use of both).

After training, use of the local bus remained the same, but use of the regional service increased from 37.7% to 65.6%. This included a significant increase in useage to get to the subway (27.9% to 37.7%).

The barriers to use of public transport usually cited in the literature appeared not to be particularly important - respondents did not think it was unsafe, inaccessible, expensive or unfriendly, and did not think buses were difficult to board or that information was difficult to find.