Great research by Karel Martens on the bicycle's role in helping underprivileged people get around.
“ Respondents did not experience problems in the maintenance of their contacts at the neighborhood level; walking and cycling were the primary transport modes used to do so. At the urban level, a clear difference was shown between younger and older respondents. The former frequently used a bicycle and appreciated its flexibility, because it provided the possibility to visit family or friends on the way to other destinations. The older respondents indicated that they cycled much less than in the past and therefore felt limited in their ability to visit friends. Although public transport often was a solu-tion, it reduced the possibility for a spontaneous visit. Respondents that used to have access to a car experienced this lack of spontane-ity as a problem, especially, which resulted in less frequent visits to friends and family, even on an urban scale. Elderly respondents avoided visits to friends and family in the evening hours, because of concerns about personal safety. The problems identified by the older respondents seemed to be at odds with the findings of Ziems et al. (32), who found that lower levels of out-of-home activity were more than compensated for by the benefits derived from the pursuit of discretionary activities at home”
Thanks to @tokyobybike for sharing this research.