Demand responsive transport as a social innovation - the case of Skewiel mobiel

People are increasingly growing older. Growing older is likely to come with, for example, decreasing mobility and therefore increasing dependency. This can reduce the social connectedness of older people. As an effect, a social challenge is growing: loneliness. In response to this challenge, local governments offer mobility services that the elderly can use to go out. However, from our test bed of a mobility product-service system for seniors, we learned that many such services focus too much on transporting people from A to B, while the user experience of the service leaves room for improvement. In this paper we discuss how a demand responsive transport system, set-up as a social innovation, improves social connectedness, instead of delivering mobility alone. We found that the service itself provides social satisfaction, and that the service was not necessarily used for social activities. Rather, the service was used for activities of daily life.