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Neighbourhood walkability: Elderly's priorities
Abstract
The benefits of mobility in later life and active ageing have been widely documented and evidenced. Despite its clear benefits, physical activity levels among older people fall short of recommended levels. Older people can have feelings of fear when walking in the outdoor environment. In order to facilitate mobility in later life, it is important that accessible, clearly structured and predictable urban environments are provided. This study wants to understand which aspects and measures the elderly consider more important in order to encourage and improve neighbourhood walkability, considering the influence of age-related declines and experience as road users. A survey was developed in the urban area of Catania (Italy). The total sample comprised 645 participants (355 men and 290 women) aged over 70. A Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was developed to analyse the data. Results show that elderly pedestrians with minor age-related declines give stronger importance to the walkability along the road, but also focus on improper or aggressive driving behaviours. Pedestrians with major age-related declines give instead more importance to the level of comfort and safety when they cross the road. The driving experience was found to have little influence on elderly priorities for neighbourhood walkability.
... While walking and walkability are frequently used concepts in academic and popular debates [39][40][41], it is important to carefully dwell on their meaning to understand what precisely is at stake and in which ways walking and walkability should be considered as imperatives in the processes of managing and governing cities. The inroads of ICT in the city space, and the gradual transformation of cities into smart cities, make this understanding even more relevant. ...
... With regards to walkability, it needs to be stressed that the very focus on "walkability" is an outcome of a return of the urban planners' community, including developers and designers who already voiced that "cities are for walking" in the 70s imperative [35,39,40]. Indeed, rather than focusing on transportation, the key city planning imperative today is "to plan for humans, not for vehicles" [52,53,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]. ...
This paper explores walking and walkability in the smart city and makes a case for their centrality in the debate on the resilience and sustainability of smart cities, as outlined in the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is argued that, while the human/inhabitant-centric paradigm of urban development consolidates, and research on walking, walkability, and pedestrian satisfaction flourishes, the inroads of ICT render it necessary to reflect on these issues in the conceptually- and geographically-delimited space of the smart city. More importantly, it becomes imperative to make respective findings useful and usable for policymakers. To this end, by approaching walking and walkability through the lens of utility, the objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework in which the relevance of walking and walkability, hereafter referred to as w2, as a distinct subject of research in the smart cities debate is validated. This framework is then employed to construct a model of a composite w2smart city utility index. With the focus on the development of the conceptual framework, in which the w2 utility index is embedded, this paper constitutes the first conceptual step of the composite index development process. The value added of this paper is three-fold: First, the relevance of walking and walkability as a distinct subject of research in the realm of smart cities research is established. Second, a mismatch between end-users’ satisfaction derived from walking and their perception of walkability and the objective factors influencing walking and walkability is identified and conceptualized by referencing the concept of utility. Third, a model smart city w2 utility index is proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic tool that, in the subsequent stages of research and implementation, will prove useful for decisionmakers and other stakeholders involved in the process of managing smart cities.
... As pointed out by Sahani and Bhuyan [4], pedestrian satisfaction involves different facets, i.e., the physical conditions of walking environmental elements and satisfaction level for walking experiences while using them. Many studies dealt with such physical conditions or design elements of the facilities assessed the walkability of various cities worldwide [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Walkability represents the suitability of an urban environment to provide pedestrian walkways or such environmental features themselves that make it useful, safe, comfortable, and attractive for walking [10,12,13]. ...
... Improving walkability leads to increasing urban accessibility and travel equity because walking is socially equitable, i.e., it is available to most people non-discriminately [14]. According to Distefano, Pulvirenti [11], and Campisi, Ignaccolo [15], elderly or impaired people put different priorities on the elements of walking environments depending on their physical abilities. Labdaoui, Mazouz [12] propose a comport walkability index using thermal comfort. ...
Walking is an essential sustainable mode of transportation. Encouraging to increase walking trips can bring various social and economic benefits to our society. Since the policy paradigm has been shifting from car-oriented to pedestrian-oriented, interest in securing pedestrian rights and improving walking environments is increasing significantly. This study aims to examine factors affecting pedestrian satisfaction according to land use and street type. A pedestrian satisfaction survey was conducted in an industrial city with a mid-size population in the city of Changwon, South Korea. Based on the survey data from 500 respondents, factors affecting pedestrian satisfaction were analyzed by land use (commercial or residential areas) and street type (non-separated or separated sidewalks). The analysis results, using binary and ordered logit models, showed that the less illegal parking, the more pedestrian space, pedestrian guidance facility, and green space, the higher the pedestrian satisfaction. Factors positively affecting the satisfaction of pedestrian paths according to land use were physical environmental variables, such as the separated sidewalk variable. In commercial areas, pedestrian guidance facilities and street cleanliness were included as major influencing factors, implying differences in land use influencing factors. A common factor affecting the satisfaction of separated or non-separated sidewalk cases was also identified as the sufficiency of walking space. Therefore, the most urgent policy measure for improving pedestrian satisfaction for the city was to install a sidewalk or expand the pedestrian space. In the pedestrian-vehicle separation models, green space and cleanliness were included as significant variables, and in the non-separated models, variables of pedestrian guidance facilities and sidewalk conditions were included.
... 28 Mobility solutions for short to medium-short distances in many EU cities and towns have been moving towards policies that support active modes of transport such as walking and bicycling (Banister, 2008;Nieuwenhuijsen and Khreis, 2016), which are known for their desirable ecological characteristics, affordability and health benefits (Brown et al., 2016;Mulley et al., 2013;Rabl and Nazelle, 2012). Active mobility is also a fundamental option for the population of young seniors (65-74 years old) and a positive way of enhancing and promoting active and healthy ageing (Distefano, Pulvirenti, and Leonardi, 2020;Mateo-Babiano et al., 2016). Especially with the currently increasing availability and affordability of electric bikes and scooters (Gössling, 2020), active transport modes might become an attractive alternative for young seniors when making short distance trips. ...
... Average road distance (x-axis, bars) per person to services and share of population (y-axis, line) within a certain distance from a local service by degree of urbanisation for over 65 years olds studies showed that expansions of designated cycling network infrastructures are associated with increases in cycling (Mueller et al. 2018). In many cities, the way public spaces are designed must be rethought and reconsidered to make walking an attractive, efficient, and safe mode of transportation for the elderly (Distefano et al., 2020). However, outside cities, nearby destinations and proximity services are more sparsely distributed in dispersed rural and mostly uninhabited areas, which makes it more difficult to use active transport modes for the elderly population there. ...
... An example are office workplaces that are usually not a regular destination for walking trips of retired people, so the weighting is set to zero. The daily needs of older people are more closely associated with essential grocery shopping, health-related services and recreational activities in the residential neighbourhood (Distefano et al., 2021;Guida and Carpentieri, 2021). For this reason, the general assessment presented for the whole population is modified with higher weights for these amenities on the one hand and an adjusted distance decay function on the other. ...
Introduction
This paper introduces OS-WALK-EU, a new open-source walkability assessment tool developed specifically for urban neighbourhoods and using open-source spatial data. A free and open-source tool, OS-WALK-EU is accessible to the general public. It uses open data available worldwide and free online services to compute accessibility, while at the same time allowing users to integrate local datasets if available. Based on a review of existing measurement concepts, the paper adopts dimensions of walkability that were tested in European city environments and explains their conceptualization for software development. We invite the research community to collaboratively test, adopt and use the tool as part of the increasing need to monitor walkability as part of health-promoting urban development.
Methods
Tool development is based on spatial analysis methods to compute indicators for five dimensions of walkability: residential density, weighted proximities to amenities, pedestrian radius of activity, share of green and blue infrastructure, and slope. Sample uses in the cities of Dublin, Düsseldorf and Lisbon test the validity of input data and results, including scenarios for target groups like older people.
Results
Overall, application of the tool in Dublin, Düsseldorf and Lisbon shows conclusive results that conform to local knowledge. Shortcomings can be attributed to deficiencies in open source input data. Local administrative data, if available, is suitable to improve results.
Conclusions
OS-WALK-EU is the first software tool that allows free and open walkability assessments with pedestrian routing capacities for ‘proximity to facilities’ calculations. Large scale implementation for 33 German city regions in an online application shows the value of comparative assessments of walkable neighbourhoods between urban and suburban neighbourhoods. Such assessments are important to monitor progress in a mobility transition towards improved walkability and public health.
... In this context, the risks to pedestrians on the road and their high vulnerability to serious injury as a result of traffic crashes have become a major concern for policy makers and health professionals [7]. The progressive aging of the population, associated with the decline in the abilities of older pedestrians, is also an important factor affecting the level of safety that urban areas provide for vulnerable users [8,9], which must also be taken into account when determining the most appropriate safety measures [10,11]. It is estimated that about 12 million road accidents involving pedestrians occur each year, killing about 270,000 people worldwide (about 23% of all road fatalities worldwide [12]). ...
The speed value of 30 km/h should not be exceeded in urban areas, both to ensure safety requirements for all categories of users and to improve the overall quality of life in urban areas. Moreover, it is necessary not only to comply with the prescribed maximum speed, but also to ensure a uniform speed by limiting the variations in relation to the average value within an acceptable range of variation. An original analysis methodology is therefore proposed, useful for both technicians and administrators to verify the effectiveness of traffic calming measures, especially in areas where these measures are widely used, such as Zones 30. This methodology, called SPEIR (acronym for Speed Profile, Effectiveness Indicators and Results, which are the keywords of the three steps into which the proposed methodology is divided), is divided into three operational steps necessary to both verify the effectiveness of existing traffic calming measures in a given context and to plan new traffic calming measures to be implemented in specific urban sectors to be requalified and revitalized. Finally, three case studies are presented where the application of the SPEIR methodology is useful not only for understanding the operational steps in the application of the methodology itself, but also for understanding the differences in terms of the safety performance that the various traffic calming measures provide to the users of the urban streets where such measures are present.
... Though city planners have promoted urban walkability for decades (Distefano et al., 2020;Jacobs, 1961;Lo, 2009;Southworth, 2005), the lack of sidewalk presence data is still a considerable challenge for urban planners, let alone the detailed sidewalk network characteristics that are required for those with mobility impairments. A detailed sidewalk inventory can help wheelchair users in planning routes and selecting an environment-friendly physical community for living. ...
Street view images are now widely used in web map services, providing on-site photos of street scenes for users to explore without physically being in the field. These photos record detailed visual information of the street environment with geospatial control; therefore, they can be used for metric mapping purposes. In this study, we present a method to convert street view images to measurable land cover maps using their associated depthmap data. The proposed method can autonomously extract and measure land cover objects over large areas covered by a mosaic of street view images. In the case study, we demonstrated the use of land cover maps derived from Google Street View images to extract sidewalk features and to measure sidewalk clear widths for wheelchair users. Sidewalk feature slopes were also extracted from the metadata of street view images. Using the Washington D.C., U.S. as the study area, our method extracted a sidewalk network of 2,561 km in length with the precision of 0.8662 and recall of 0.8525. The extracted sidewalks have widths between 1-2 m, the mean width error of 0.24 m, and the slope mean error of 0.638°. In Washington D.C., most sidewalks meet the minimum width requirement (0.9 m), but 20% of them have slopes that exceed the maximum allowance (1:20 or about 2.9°). These results demonstrate the converted land cover maps from street view images can be used for metric mapping purposes. The extracted sidewalk network can serve as a valuable inventory for urban planners to promote equitable walkability for mobility disabled users. And if widely available, mobility-impaired users could consult them prior to planning a route.
... A large number of studies have shown that the neighborhood walkability [47][48][49], accessibility (e.g., commercial, education, public transportation stations, parks, green spaces, and leisure facilities) [5,50,51], attractiveness (green space, and parks) [52,53], and other objective built environment characteristics may support or hinder the general, transport, and recreational walking behavior of the elderly. ...
Studies have proved that activity and fitness behaviors are closely related to the quality of life and health status of the elderly. However, different intensities of physical activity (PA)—walking, moderate PA, and vigorous PA—have different correlations with the built environment (BE). This study combines the high and low socioeconomic status (SES) of Guangzhou to establish two types of BE models. The physical activity time of 600 elderly people was collected from questionnaires. Through ArcGIS software, 300 m, 500 m, 800 m, and 1000 m buffer zones were identified, and the land use diversity, street design, population density, distance to destination, distance to public transportation—the five Ds of the BE—were measured. SPSS software was adopted to analyze the correlation between the BE and PA. Results: The PA of people living in low-SES areas was more dependent on the BE, whereas the correlation may be limited in high SES areas. Moreover, in low SES areas, walking was negatively correlated with street connectivity; moderate PA was positively correlated with street connectivity and the shortest distance to the subway station, but negatively correlated with the density of entertainment points of interest (POIs). Studying the relevant factors of the environment can propose better strategies to improve the initiative of the elderly to engage in PA.
... In modern life, older people prefer to walk in their neighborhoods [6][7][8], but like all age groups, they rely on cars as their primary mode of transportation, which allows them to maintain their autonomy over long distances [9]. However, as people age, decline in motor skills, vision, somatosensory functions and cognition increases, which can have a significant impact on driving skills, including the ability to correctly visualize the driving scenario and understand the dynamics occurring there [10,11]. ...
Longer life expectancy is leading to an increase in the average age of the European population. In 2018, 20% of the population was over 65 years old. In 2070, 30.3% of the population will be over 65. Older people prefer to walk in their neighborhoods but they rely on cars as their primary mode of transportation, which allows them to maintain their autonomy over long distances. However, age-related physical impairments can have a significant impact on driving skills, including the ability to properly visualize driving scenarios. Numerous studies have shown that older drivers have significant safety problems at standard intersections rather than roundabouts (40% of fatal crashes occur at standard intersections among drivers 70 years and older). In this work, it was decided to study a specific parameter representative of the behavior of all road users when preparing for the typical maneuvers at stop-controlled intersections (crossing, right-turn and left-turn). This parameter is the gap accepted by elderly road users at different stop-controlled intersections and under homogeneous traffic conditions. For this purpose, a research campaign was organized with 37 elderly drivers performing all possible maneuvers at 9 intersections in Italy (Eastern Sicily). The experimentally determined values of the critical gap for left-turn and crossing maneuvers were found to be compatible with those of the main internationally used reference manuals for road design. The value of the critical 50th percentile gap (G 50 ) for the right-turn maneuver was similar to that for the left-turn maneuver. This is an indication of a very similar level of difficulty for older drivers in performing both turning maneuvers. The results of this study have highlighted the need to take into account the different operational difficulties associated with the possible maneuvers at intersections. The theoretical approaches of the Italian legislation are carried out, based on a criterion that does not distinguish according to the way in which the three maneuvers, which proves to be totally inadequate. This suggests a complete revision of the criteria for checking sight distances at stop-controlled intersections.
... They reinforce previous conclusions on the positive effects of the presence of amenities that provide a diverse spectrum of destinations (Rosso et al., 2013), a good street network connectivity (Yen et al., 2014) and greenness (Franke et al., 2013). The low-speed areas were also shown to be positively associated with walking since they provide a safe environment to older adults (Distefano et al., 2020). Urban planning interventions aiming at fostering active transportation will then also help promoting walking trips with longer detours. ...
Interest is growing in neighborhood effects on health beyond individual’s home locations. However, few studies accounted for selective daily mobility bias. Selective mobility of 470 older adults (aged 67-94) living in urban and suburban areas of Luxembourg, was measured through detour percentage between their observed GPS-based paths and their shortest paths. Multilevel negative binomial regression tested associations between detour percentage, trips characteristics and environmental exposures. Detour percentage was higher for walking trips (28%) than car trips (16%). Low-speed areas and connectivity differences between observed and shortest paths vary by transport mode, indicating a potential selective daily mobility bias. The positive effects of amenities, street connectivity, low-speed areas and greenness on walking detour reinforce the existing evidence on older adults' active transportation. Urban planning interventions favoring active transportation will also promote walking trips with longer detours, helping older adults to increase their physical activity levels and ultimately promote healthy aging.
... In [37], the authors highlight the importance of walkability to enhance quality of life among the elderly. The authors sought to determine the aspects and features that the elderly consider to be most important to encourage and improve urban walkability. ...
New strategies to improve the quality of urban pedestrian environments are becoming increasingly important in sustainable city planning. This trend has been driven by the advantages that active mobility provides in terms of health, social, and environmental aspects. Our work explores the idea of walkability. This concept refers to the friendliness of the urban environment to pedestrian traffic. We propose a framework based on the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology to rank streets in terms of walkability levels. The city of Lisbon (Portugal) is the location of the streets under examination. Findings confirmed the framework’s replicability and suggested the possibility of this strategy being used as a support tool for designing urban policies.
As the world ages, the built environment requires special attention to assist this growing part of society and therefore the update of urban design guidelines and urban policies is required. The goal of this study is to provide an overview of existing literature regarding emotions and perceptions from older people related to the outdoor built environment. A scoping review was performed using empirical studies in 12 scientific databases in a fourteen-year period (2007-2021) involving people at least 60 years old and outdoor built environment perceptions. Collected evidence identified 52 papers following the PRISMA procedure. Studies reported basic emotions (e.g., fear, joy) and space perceptions (e.g., walkability, accessibility) regarding the outdoor built environment as sidewalks, streets, and greenery. Our study reinforces the importance of analyzing older people perceptions regarding the outdoor built environment so that architects, urban planners, and decision makers have information to design solutions that fit older people needs.
Background
Creating neighbourhood places for older adults to be socially and physically active is a global health priority. Safety is integral to older adult mobility. In greenway research, perceived safety is often only partially or superficially explored. Our study comprehensively examines older adults’ experiences and perceived safety for walking on a new urban greenway in Vancouver, Canada—the Arbutus Greenway.
Methods
We integrated mixed methods: i) observational count data to describe the use and context of the greenway over 3 years (2017; 2018; 2019), and; ii) semi-structured interviews with older adults at two time points (2017, n = 27; 2019, n = 16).
Results
and discussion: We conducted thematic analysis to illuminate older adults' experiences across three safety domains: personal safety, traffic safety, and security. Built environment features such as benches, paving, road markings, and natural foliage buffers intersected with elements of the social environment to influence older adults’ perceived safety. While the greenway supported active transportation, leisure, and social engagement for many older adults, certain factors also provoked fears, especially for older adults with mobility limitations. We advocate for a multidimensional lens to better understand how urban interventions influence perceived safety, and identify practical solutions to encourage mobility for all ages and abilities.
Positive Psychology has been developed as a complement to traditional Psychology to cater for positive components of personality which can lead to sustainable satisfaction, happiness and well being. Positive Technologies have been developed to build technological tools to support Positive Psychology. Artificial Intelligence research has focused on the development of artefacts to relieve humans from undesired tasks, with lesser focus on artefacts to promote positive components towards well being and happiness. In this article, the concept of Positive Artificial Intelligence is proposed as a counterpart in Artificial Intelligence to the role Positive Psychology has played in Psychology.
Roundabouts have been shown to provide significant safety and operational benefits, but a better understanding of public perceptions of roundabouts is critical in order to assess the contribution of the driving behavior of the users on their safety. Therefore, research on user behavior and preferences is a helpful tool in improving road safety and accident prevention. The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about Italian users’ public opinion on road roundabouts. The authors estimated cross-national differences, and assessed correlations with personal variables, such as age, gender, travel mode most frequently used, perception of roundabout safety, etc. In order to collecting data, the instrument used is a national web based survey, the total sample comprised 1.728 participants. The data collected were analyzed by both Ordinal regression method and Multiple Correspondence Analysis.
The results of this study show that the overall opinion that the respondents expressed against roundabouts is favorable. There are no substantial differences between the judgment of male drivers and that of females. Although for some categories of users the roundabouts are not considered safe and have no advantages in terms of functionality, their general opinion is always positive. The categories of respondents who expressed "Favorable" opinion are: women, those who travel daily with the private car or with public transport and who is a pedestrian. The categories of respondents who expressed "Very favorable" opinion are: men, and those who use the motorcycle as their main means of transport.
Moreover, this study showed that web-based surveys provide an efficient means of collecting detailed public opinion data.
Pedestrians aged over 65 are known to be a critical group in terms of road safety because they represent the age group with the highest number of fatalities or injured persons in road accidents. It is therefore important to identify and characterize how old pedestrians perceive pedestrian paths with respect to their age related declines in perceptual and physical abilities and with respect to their experiences as road users. The aim of this study is first of all to understand which critical issues old pedestrians found in the pedestrian paths they usually walk. More specifically, the final aim is to capture and analyze the key components that influence the elderly pedestrians' perception of pedestrian paths and to identify how these perceptions change for different pedestrian "profiles" based on human factors. The aspects related to human factors considered are the gender, the factors associated with the experience as road users and the factors related to age related problems (mobility, vision and hearing problems). The results show that the judgment expressed by the elderly on the critical issues of pedestrian paths they usually walk is significantly linked to gender, to their experience as road users, and to vision problem, which compromise the correct perception of the road environment. This is important to determine interventions and could support traffic engineers, planners, and decision-makers to consider the contributing factors in engineering countermeasures.
Nowadays, pedestrian safety is a growing problem: on the one hand pedestrian movement is increasing, on the other hand measures to improve walkers' safety are still scarce. During the years, various behavioural models have been proposed, which consider several parameters characterizing both the environment and the road users. Many studies define accident risk as a combination of three main factors, which are the accident occurrence probability, the vulnerability of the involved users and the economic and social damages due to the accident. The approaches spotted in literature about pedestrian safety assessment are various and they mainly deal with vehicle-pedestrian accidents. These studies have been developed in order to foresee and reduce possible losses in human lives. Also pedestrian-pedestrian encroachments can lead to dangerous consequences, but researches about them are still limited. This study aims to highlight the correspondence and/or the differences between different analysis methods applied to pedestrian field, focusing on situations where no interactions with vehicular traffic exist. This is one step of a wider research, which has been carried out on a confined space, selected because of easy replicability of its general geometrical features and of the effects on pedestrian trajectories induced by some local peculiarities of the facility. The study focuses on the evaluation of a real case, which has been monitored through the use of cameras and analysed via a dedicated tool. The achieved results have been then compared to the outputs obtained by reconstructing the same situation in a micro-simulation model. The first step - video acquisition and elaboration - allowed to observe how people behave in the examined area and how the environment influences their trajectories, while the second phase permitted to understand if a microsimulation tool can reliably reply pedestrian movement in the analysed scenario and therefore provide surrogate safety values comparable to the ones obtained from real data. In the model, a simplified but still accurate environment has been set up: homogeneous geometric features have been drawn and no obstacles have been considered. The modelled pedestrian flow is a bi-directional, 2400 ped/h flux, characterized by heterogeneity of agents: both male and female adults. In order to be able to compare the data obtained by video footages and elaborated through an ad hoc tracking tool with outputs of the microsimulation model, from the whole flow on the ramp some intersecting pedestrians have been selected in both directions of walking. This cross-study of two different techniques has allowed to inspect the effects of the environment on pedestrian dynamics and to precautionary estimate the level of safety via calculation of surrogate safety parameters.
Risk perception, i.e. the ability to "read the road" in relation to potentially dangerous situations in the traffic environment, is strongly related to accident involvement. Human driving behavior is strongly conditioned by the road environment in its entirety, as driving involves complex interactions between the driver and the environment. This study investigated the risk perception of roundabouts for young people in order to identify the major factors which influence such perception. A road users survey was developed to obtain young people feedback on roundabouts. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was used in order to understand how the young people features, the geometric characteristics and the traffic conditions of roundabouts affect the respondents' risk perception. Finally, a risk perception scale was defined for the configurations of roundabouts identified. The research findings provides insight into young people risk perception of roundabouts: traffic conditions strongly affect risk perception of roundabouts; the roundabouts with small circulatory roadway (smaller than 7 m), with a diameter less than 40 m and with one lane on the legs and on the circulatory roadway are generally perceived as more dangerous than those with a medium/large circulatory roadway (larger than 7 m), with a diameter longer than 40 m and with two lanes n the legs and on the circulatory roadway; the right-turn bypass lane affects the respondents risk perception, but not in a clear and unambiguous manner. The authors believe that the results presented on this paper provide updated findings which may be useful to improve roundabouts design.
Vehicle speed is one of the main risk factors for road traffic safety. To increase the level of road safety, especially in urban areas, measures must be implemented to reduce vehicle speed. The installation of calming measures on a road network is systematically planned way to reduce driving speeds. This paper studies the effectiveness in terms of speed reduction of three types of traffic calming measures: 1) speed table, 2) chicane, and 3) road narrowing. The speed analyses regard a series of traffic calming measures located in urban contexts of Catania Province (Italy). For each of these traffic calming measures, experimental investigations were carried out relating to the measurement of speed. The study has shown that the speed tables represent the measure of traffic calming that guarantees the greatest conditioning on speed (it is also possible to halve the average speed). Even the chicanes have a significant impact on reducing speed, as well as the speed tables (average speed is reduced by up to 50%), while road narrowing allows maximum reductions in average speed of around 35%. Furthermore, all three traffic calming measures have resulted in a reduction of accidents always greater than 30%. In the case of speed tables, the reduction in accidents exceeds even 40%. The consequences of road accidents are also mitigated thanks to the traffic calming interventions considered. The reduction of injured people is between 32% (road narrowing) and 50% (chicane). The speed tables involve a reduction of almost 40% of injured people while fatal accidents are completely eliminated. Finally, it has been observed that the reduction in pedestrian injuries is between 33% (road narrowing) and 50% (speed tables). In the case of the chicane the reduction of injured pedestrians is 40%. The pedestrian fatal accidents in the road section in which the speed tables were subsequently installed have been reduced to zero.
Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries. Pedestrian accidents are one of the first causes of injury-related deaths and hospitalizations among children aged 5 to 14 in industrialized countries. This study has a dual objective: 1) to identify the factors affecting Italian parents' propensity to use private cars to accompany their children to school; 2) to analyze the availability of Italian parents to let their children walk to school alone. In order to develop this analysis, the data collected from a survey conducted in front of 9 schools (kindergartens and primary schools) in Catania were used. A path analysis was carried out to analyze these data. The results show that the habit of driving children to school is still very common in Italy. Main reasons why parents drive their children to school are the lack of safe home-school paths and the availability of regular or irregular parking spaces near the school. These results can be useful for those involved in transport planning and safety in order to implement effective actions aimed at encouraging the use of one or several human-powered modes of transportation such as walking or cycling. The results furthermore suggest that infrastructure-centered interventions, such as traffic calming measures and safer pedestrian crossings, can increase parents' safety perception of the home-school paths and thus raise the probability that children walk to school.
This paper presents a multi-criteria-based methodology to involve the general public in transport decision-making, aiming at collecting information useful to design a technically sound and well-accepted transport service. The case study presented is part of a wider participation procedure, involving experts and key stakeholders in the definition of the problem and of the possible solutions. It regards the connection between a metro station and a park-and-ride facility through a short-range transit system in the city of Catania (Italy). Around six hundred citizens have been involved via a wide consultation survey adopting a multi-criteria perspective, asking them to perform pairwise comparisons of different elements (i.e. criteria) that can characterize a transport service. Results of the analysis are useful to understand their heterogeneous preferences and pave the way for a well-thought-out design of a new transport service.
The aim of this paper is to identify the roundabout geometric characteristics affecting the safety perception while the typical maneuvers (entry, circulation, exit) are being carried out. The tool used was an on-line questionnaire, filled out by about 1.650 respondents. Four different dimensionality reduction methods (Cluster Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis) were used to analyze the data collected from the survey, in order to examine the key factors affecting the safety perception during the typical roundabout maneuvers. The considerations arising from the final model are the following: 1) the respondents' opinions regarding the safety perception of maneuvers are not preconceived ideas, but they originate from specific safety perceptions due to roundabout geometric configurations; 2) the users prefer definitely single lane roundabouts; this is an important confirmation of most results in the literature; 3) it was quantified the extent of the relationship between the safety perception of the typical roundabout maneuvers and the following aspects: a) maneuver type, b) geometric characteristics of the roundabouts design elements. This is the innovative aspect of the present research whose results have implications regarding theory, infrastructure and the application of new safety technologies. © 2017 International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences
Population aging is happening in most of the world's metropolitan cities, and the proportion of elderly adults is predicted to increase significantly in the coming decades. This rapid growth of elderly populations may lead to serious transport issues when their mobility is compromised by the unavailability of public transport services. Public transport concession fare schemes are commonly implemented in many cities to encourage the elderly's participation in social activities. However, these policies emphasize the role of money (i.e., travel fares) in determining willingness to travel. Other possible factors, such as walking distance to and from stops and stations, wait times for public transport services, and seat availability, have not been considered by transport operators and policy makers. In this study, we interviewed 613 elderly Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above regarding their travel decisions using designated modes of public transport to attend social activities in four hypothetical games. A total of 2452 observations were collected for model development. Binary logistic regression models were calibrated to determine which factors significantly influenced the elderly's travel decisions. Based on the model results, this paper suggests policy measures to strengthen public transport planning in Hong Kong with the goal of improving elderly mobility. The findings provide policy insights that can also be applied to other metropolitan cities with similar traffic conditions.
Although older adults are typically able to drive well into older adulthood, health and cognitive deficits can eventually make older motorists a danger to themselves and others. There is a need for increased senior-focused transportation options, yet implementation of such programs is problematic due to an uncertainty about which groups are in most need of services. This study measured the perceived need for formal alternative modes of transportation among older adults. Using data from a nationwide survey, this study applies the traditional factors of the Behavioral Model to measure the perceived need for formal transportation services among survey participants, while also examining the relationship between service awareness and perceived need for formal transportation services. Survey participants who still drove on a regular basis were compared to survey participants who could no longer drive. Race/ethnicity and self-reported health were significant predictors of perceived need for formal transportation services for both groups. However, income and service awareness were significant predictors only for drivers, while family proximity was a significant predictor only for non-drivers. Results suggest the importance of gaining a better understanding of the factors associated with perceived need for senior-focused transportation services in the hopes of more effectively planning such programs.
This paper reflects the ageing process as a normal and universal transformation, their physical and cognitive limitations when faced with a mobility system that is not adapted to the reality of the elders and which facts must be considered in a possible restructuring of the system in order to promote the quality of life of the elderly, access to goods, opportunities and social groups providing them with the necessary empowerment to independently fulfil their needs. Improve mobility is not just a set-directive, but rather a process of multidisciplinary collaboration and coordination with other urban policies and projects, such as health, infrastructure and land use, so that it serves the objectives and needs of the population, promote security for all citizens, reflect community values, and support the activities already under development and foster community sustainability. The objectives described, will have a positive impact on economic vitality, stimulates the development of land use, and promotes a healthier lifestyle and improved interconnectivity between activities. For an approach to these issues, we need to get a better understanding about the individual needs on the public space, the transportation system in social and political context. To satisfy elderly mobility a strategy is needed covering political, educational initiatives towards empowered mobility for elderly people.
People’s life expectancy is increasing throughout the world as a result of improved living standards and medical advances. The natural ageing process is accompanied by physiological changes which can have significant consequences for mobility. As a consequence, older people tend to make fewer journeys than other adults and may change their transport mode. Access to public transport can help older people to avail themselves of goods, services, employment and other activities. With the current generation of older people being more active than previous generations of equivalent age, public transport will play a crucial role in maintaining their active life style even when they are unable to drive. Hence, public transport is important to older people’s quality of life, their sense of freedom and independence. Within the European Commission funded GOAL (Growing Older and staying mobile) project, the requirements of older people using public transport were studied in terms of four main issues: Affordability, availability, accessibility and acceptability. These requirements were then analysed in terms of five different profiles of older people defined within the GOAL project – ‘Fit as a Fiddle’, ‘Hole in the Heart’, ‘Happily Connected’, An ‘Oldie but a Goodie’ and ‘Care-Full’. On the basis of the analysis the paper brings out some areas of knowledge gaps and research needed to make public transport much more attractive and used by older people in the 21st century.
Background:
Neighbourhood characteristics may influence physical activity (PA), which has positive effects on the health of older adults. Older adults with chronic conditions are less active and possibly more affected by environmental factors than their peers. Understanding neighbourhood characteristics associated with PA specific to older adults with chronic conditions is currently lacking. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the associations between the neighbourhood environment and various forms of PA in older adults with and without visual impairment, hearing impairment, musculoskeletal disease and/or genitourinary disease.
Methods:
Neighbourhood environment and PA data were collected in Hong Kong older adults (N = 909) from 124 preselected neighbourhoods stratified for walkability and socioeconomic status. Generalized linear models and zero-inflated negative binomial models with robust standard errors were used to examine associations of perceived neighbourhood environment characteristics, and the moderating effects of having specific chronic conditions, with PA outcomes.
Results:
Thirteen perceived neighbourhood characteristics were associated with older adults' PA in the expected direction irrespective of their health condition. Nine neighbourhood characteristics had associations with PA that were dependent on hearing impairment, vision impairment, musculoskeletal disease or genitourinary disease. In general, they were stronger in participants with than without a specific chronic condition.
Conclusions:
Maximizing the potential for PA in older adults who have lower levels of physical functionality due to chronic conditions may require neighbourhood characteristics specific to these groups.
The population of older adults in the US is growing extremely rapidly, and is expected to grow at an even
faster rate in the near future. Consequently, there is an increasing need to provide transportation services
for non-driving older adults. As older adults’ transportation needs are different from the needs of other
age groups, the scholarly evaluation of viable transportation options is crucial. A nationwide survey
was conducted to examine older adults’ perceptions and preferences for five transportation alternatives,
including: volunteer drivers, shuttle buses, senior-center-based shuttle buses, prepaid taxi services, and
specially coordinated bus/rail service to distant medical centers. Results found that the volunteer drivers
alternative was the most preferred by both driving and non-driving older adults. This study also
investigated the effects of location (rural, micropolitan, or metropolitan), driving status (driving and
non-driving), nearness to the most frequently visited place (grocery stores), and familiarity with elderly
transportation options on transportation alternative selection. This study provides vital information to
transportation policy makers who design transportation systems for older adults in their communities.
In industrialized countries people over 50 years of age represent a rapidly growing part of population. Their lifestyle Is also becoming more active, which means that the percentage of older drivers in the population of all drivers is also Increasing. Many different studies have shown that elderly drivers are more frequently involved In specific types of accidents, especially at intersections. In the past 15 years there was a trend of increasing popularity of roundabouts in Slovenia. Their introduction was generally supported by the arguments of Increased trafficflow capacity and traffic safety as well. The studies on which these arguments are based were performed with an ideal type of driver in mind; the one that fully understands new rules and reacts correctly in all situations that may occur at such intersections, where there are no light signals to guide them. An elderly person does not necessarily conform to that ideal and if the percentage of elderly drivers became significant, the premises of the above mentioned studies may not be correct anymore which In turn implies that their results could also be questioned. The present study concentrated on the evaluation of traffic safety of elderly drivers, at various types of intersection, from their own perspective. Various statistical analyses of obtained data were performed. The most Important finding was that we may claim, with high degree of probability, that the average person of the age of over 60 feels more unsafe at double-lane roundabouts than they would feel had the same Intersection been equipped with traffic lights. Elderly traffic participants will always cause more accidents or participate In them due to hazardous factors. Challenge, arising from many different studies and researches, Is In studying what measures and solutions can reduce the risk for elderly participants.
In 2013, 346 out of 616 fatal crashes in Louisiana were single vehicle crashes with Run-Off-Road (ROR) crashes being the most common type of single vehicle crash. In order to create effective countermeasures for reducing the number of fatal single vehicle ROR crashes, it is important to identify any associated key factors that can quantitatively assess the performance of roads, vehicles and humans. This research uses Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), a multidimensional descriptive data analysis method that associates a combination of factors based on their relative distance in a two dimensional plane, to analyze eight years (2004–2011) of fatal ROR crashes in Louisiana. This method measures important contributing factors and their degree of association. The results revealed that drivers of lightweight trucks, drivers on undivided state highways, male drivers in passenger-vehicles at dawn, older female (65–74) drivers in non-passenger vehicles, older drivers facing hardship to yield in partial access control zones, and drivers with poor reaction time due to impaired driving were closely associated with fatal ROR crashes.
Results of the MCA method can help researchers select the most effective crash countermeasures. Further work on the degree of association between the identified crash contributing factors can help safety management systems develop the most efficient crash reduction strategies.
Exploratory analysis was made of data from pedestrian crashes to detect interdependence and dissimilarities between crash patterns and to provide insight for the development of safety improvement strategies focused on pedestrians. Data-mining techniques, such as classification trees and association rules, were used on data related to 56,014 pedestrian crashes that occurred in Italy from 2006 to 2008. Crash severity was the response variable most sensitive to crash patterns. The most influential crash patterns were road type, pedestrian age, lighting conditions, vehicle type, and interactions between these patterns. Notable results included associations between fatal crashes and rural areas, urban provincial and national roads, pedestrians older than 75 years, nighttime conditions, pedestrians older than 65 years in nighttime crashes, drivers' young age and male gender in nighttime crashes, and truck involvement. To mitigate the fatal crash patterns identified by the classification trees and association rules, several measures are suggested for implementation. Results of the study are consistent with results of previous studies that used other analytic techniques, such as probabilistic models of crash injury severity. The data-mining techniques used in the study were able to detect interdependencies among crash characteristics. The use of classification trees and association rules, however, must be seen not as an attempt to supplant other techniques, but as a complementary method that can be integrated into other safety analyses.
India's elderly population growth rate is estimated to be 8% and size of elderly population (+60 and -70) in India is likely to be 69 million by 2016. This implies that six-tenths of the population +60 and -70 years and one-third of the population +70 to -80 can be expected to be in reasonably good physical and mental health and capable of leading an active life. The above mentioned statistics and also as per UN directive, India can be considered in aging country category. The objective of this paper is to know which factors contribute to elderly driver, cyclist and pedestrian unsafe characteristics as a road user. The decrease in sensory, cognitive and physical characteristics of elderly makes them vulnerable as elderly driver, cyclist and pedestrian than other age group (-60).
To examine the associations between perceived proximity to neighborhood resources, disability, and social participation and the potential moderating effect of perceived proximity to neighborhood resources on the association between disability and social participation in community-dwelling older women and men.
Cross-sectional.
Community.
Older adults (296 women, 258 men).
Not applicable.
Data for age, education, depressive symptoms, frequency of participation in community activities, perceived proximity to neighborhood resources (services, amenities), and functional autonomy in daily activities (disability) were collected by means of interviewer-administered questionnaire.
Greater perceived proximity to resources and lower level of disability were associated with greater social participation for both women (R(2)=.10; P<.001) and men (R(2)=.05; P<.01). The association between disability and social participation did not vary as a function of perceived proximity to neighborhood resources in women (no moderating effect; P=.15). However, in men, greater perceived proximity to neighborhood resources enhanced social participation (P=.01), but only in those with minor or no disability.
Future studies should investigate why perceived proximity to services and amenities is associated with social participation in older men with minor or no disabilities and with women overall, but has no association in men with moderate disabilities.
The ageing of the population poses mobility-related challenges worldwide. The emergence of new transport services that utilise technological innovations allows for new, more convenient ways to provide demand-responsive transport services in areas with limited or no regular public transport service. The question is how the
features of these new services are preferred by all age groups, in particular, those with limited mobility, such as the elderly.
In this study, we evaluate the preference of the elderly toward Breng flex, a smart Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) service offered in two adjacent Dutch cities and their surroundings. We combine results from expert interviews (n=4), a face-to-face survey with elderly non-users of Breng flex (n=38), and an online survey of Breng flex users of all ages (n=958). The results illustrate fourteen features of smart forms of DRT that are preferred by the elderly, three of which are identified here for the first time. We discuss the trade-off between
various features for the case study area and make suggestions regarding the design of a mobility service that can improve accessibility of the elderly.
Mobility in later life is key to ageing actively and well. Mobility is not merely about moving around, but is related to aspects such as perceived reasons for trip-making, feelings of (in)security and (lack of) confidence, and social and spatial knowledge. Through adopting a relational and contextual perspective, the complexities and nuances of everyday mobility can be uncovered. In this context, the aim of this paper is to examine how older adults experience their everyday trip-making in the interplay between increasing losses and deficits in the process of ageing, and characteristics of the environment in which they perform daily activities. We draw on an exploratory study with older adults living in a suburban post-war neighbourhood in the Northern Netherlands. Methods used include in-depth interviews and neighbourhood walks. We found that mundane and everyday routines and practices at the level of the body and neighbourhood are pertinent to the everyday mobility and quality of life of older adults. In conclusion, we emphasise the relationality of experienced mobility based on how older adults assessed their daily perception of fitness and the various aspects that comprised the trip to be made, i.e. social, physical and affective. To facilitate mundane mobilities in later life, it is important that accessible, clearly structured and predictable urban environments are provided, as these allow older adults to make daily use of their neighbourhood on their own terms.
An ageing population is a social phenomenon affecting transport systems in many cities. More attention is being given to how older people travel so as to increase independence in later life but at the same time ensure sustainable mobility. Despite an increasing ageing population, the small island state of Malta still needs improvements in the way ageing is considered in its overall transport policy. Together with an ageing population, Malta also suffers from a very high population density and motorisation rate. This paper seeks to explore the psychological determinants that affect older people's mobility using Malta as case study. Based on the Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour, data was collected using telephone surveys and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results reveal that older people's mobility is primarily motivated by their intentions which are predominantly affected by social norms (pressures from specific reference groups). The results also show that cognitive thinking (intentions) has a much higher effect on mobility than habit. Although ranked negatively by older people, transport infrastructure and other road users' behaviour barely affect the way they travel. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the results on transport policy and infrastructure management.
In general, safeguarding and improving the development of a city is the primary objectives pursued by the administrators of a city, considering in parallel the development of the context governed by economic, social, cultural and tourism. It is now commonly accepted that, for the pursuit of such objectives, either it is necessary to impose rules and limitations, at least partial, for access and stop in urban areas: both to cars used individually by people for their own transfers, as regards the means used to transport the goods. It is clear that the increasing development of motorization must be regulated through measures taken in the urban context in order to reduce the critical issues connected to it. Congestion and pollution would make it paradoxically more unreachable and inhospitable as much as they are all desired and desired for the performance of their life activities, of work, study, leisure and more. In accordance with the excellent results achieved by the “pedestrianization” of the streets of Maqueda “of Palermo city centre (area between the Quattro Canti and the Cathedral), which has led to a huge increase in tourist flows and the increase in commercial activities and the historical experience of the markets those who have experienced an economic crisis, we consider vital for the valorization and economic recovery of a heritage of the whole city. The increase of the limited traffic areas defines a reduction in vehicular traffic that aims to reduce the presence of cars for the benefit of livability, commercial and artisanal re-launching, tourist use. The pedestrian areas analyzed will be decided after a comparison between central and decentralized institutions, with the direct involvement of inhabitants, traders and committees operating in these areas . therefore the SWOT type analysis is fundamental for preliminary knowledge of the benefits and critical aspects of an urban intervention and also laying the foundations for more in-depth assessments both from an economic and transport standpoint through the simulation of the transport system analyzed in different scales.
In the context of an ageing population in Europe, our aim in this paper is to establish the extent to which national governments accommodate mobility among older people by promoting specific, age-friendly qualities of transport systems. We identify 11 qualities that help to promote mobility, and hence independence and social/economic inclusion, for older people. We analyse national-level government documents across the EU, Norway and Switzerland to determine how far they address each quality and conclude that disproportionate emphasis is currently being placed on the tangible and easily understood aspects of safety, barrier freedom and affordability. For various reasons, mobility among older people might better be promoted with a more rounded approach.
According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2012, more than 4950 motorcyclists were killed in traffic accidents. Compared to passenger car occupants, mile for mile, motorcyclists are more than 26 times more at risk to dying in crashes. Due to the high fatality rate associated with motorcycle crashes, factors contributing to this type of crash must be identified in order to implement effective safety countermeasures. Given that the available datasets are large and complex, identifying the key factors contributing to crashes is a challenging task. Using multiple correspondence analysis, as an exploratory data analysis technique to determine the dataset structure, we identified the roadway/environmental, motorcycle, and motorcyclist-related variables influencing at-fault motorcycle-involved crashes. This study used the latest available dataset (2009 to 2013) from the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment database to study motorcycle crashes in the state of Alabama. The most significant contributors to the frequency and severity of at-fault motorcycle-involved crashes were found to be light conditions, time of day, driver condition, and weather conditions. Copyright
Transportation has a wide range of impacts on health. Many of these are beneficial, whether through access to activities such as work, education, leisure, and social contacts, or through providing opportunities for physical activity through walking and cycling. But there are also many harmful effects from transportation, ranging from well-recognized health impacts such as injuries and the consequences of air pollution, to community severance and the long-term impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. These positive and negative impacts of transportation are experienced differentially across society, with a tendency for the benefits to be experienced by the healthy and the affluent and the adverse effects by the poor, the young, and the elderly. A modal shift away from cars in favor of walking, cycling, and public transit (transport) can reduce the harms of transportation and enhance the benefits to individuals, society, and the environment.
Transportation has a wide range of impacts on health. Many of these are beneficial, whether through access to activities such as work, education, leisure, and social contacts, or through providing opportunities for physical activity through walking and cycling. But there are also many harmful effects from transportation, ranging from well-recognized health impacts such as injuries and the consequences of air pollution, to community severance and the long-term impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. These positive and negative impacts of transportation are experienced differentially across society, with a tendency for the benefits to be experienced by the healthy and the affluent and the adverse effects by the poor, the young, and the elderly. A modal shift away from cars in favor of walking, cycling, and public transit (transport) can reduce the harms of transportation and enhance the benefits to individuals, society, and the environment.
Transport and mobility needs for all aged road users are diverse and may change with increasing age. With an increasing ageing population throughout much of the developed world combined with increasing life expectancies, there is a growing need to understand the transportation requirements of older adults. Moreover, while car use is still the most popular form of transport for older adults, alternative transport modes are offered and promoted, and their use is increasing.
This paper explores the characteristics of active transport usage among older adults, defined as persons over 65 years of age, in Melbourne, Australia. Data from the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel Activity (VISTA) was analysed to undertake the assessment.
The analysis revealed that private motorised transport is the predominant mode of transport for older adults, representing approximately 70% of travel. Approximately 22% of travel was made using active transportation, with the majority of these being walking trips. Average trip distance, trip duration and walking speed were found to decrease past the age of 75 years.
The analysis shows that the travel patterns of older adults differ from those of younger adults which may reflect the fact that transitions in lifestyle influence their travel needs, destinations and time of travel, or an overall decrease in mobility. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of ways to improve participation in active transportation and enhance the safe mobility of older active transport users, including a need to enhance the urban environment.
This study employs Amartya Sen's Capability Approach as a guiding conceptual framework in the exploration of public transport as an element of mobility among the young-old living in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim is to shed light on the variation in mobility resources of those who perceive they can use public transport as their primary mode of transport and of those who perceive they cannot (‘mobility capability element’), as well as that of those using public transport and of those not using it (‘mobility functioning element’). Increasing residential density, being female and having a higher functional capacity were among the mobility resources which produced a positive increase in the likelihood of considering it possible to use, and the use of, public transport. The higher the ratio of cars to household member, the lower the likelihood of including public transport as a mobility capability element or as a mobility functioning element. Most of those who included public transport use as both a mobility capability element and a mobility functioning element were also users of the private car. There was also a tendency towards car use rather than towards no travel if the individual was not a user of public transport. Through the application of the Capability Approach, this paper facilitates further insight into the variation in mobility resources, corresponding mobility capability and mobility functioning elements of this group, with respect to public transport. It also opens up questions for the future employment of this conceptual framework within transport research.
With federal policy beginning to shift from auto-centric planning, provision for pedestrian and bicycle access is now mandated in federally supported projects. However, the field of transportation planning has little in the way of theory and methods to guide design and planning for walkable cities. Walkability is increasingly valued for a variety of reasons. Not only does pedestrian transportation reduce congestion and have low environmental impact, it has social and recreational value. Recent research suggests that walking also promotes mental and physical health. The quality of the pedestrian environment is key to encouraging people to choose walking over driving. Six criteria are presented for design of a successful pedestrian network: (1) connectivity; (2) linkage with other modes; (3) fine grained land use patterns; (4) safety; (5) quality of path; and (6) path context. To achieve walkable cities in the United States it will be necessary to assess current walkability conditions, revise standards and regulations, research walking behavior in varied settings, promote public education and participation in pedestrian planning, and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary education between transportation engineers and the design professions. Journal of Urban Planning and Derveloping
By emphasising the involvement of elderly people in a project applying a mixed-method approach, the overriding objective of
this study was to identify and prioritise concrete measures aimed at increasing accessibility and safety in the outdoor pedestrian
environment within a residential area of a Swedish town. Measures generally given priority were: the separation of pedestrians/cyclists,
lower speed limits, better maintenance and specific measures in pedestrian walkways such as wider sidewalks, curb levels and
form and more even surfaces on pavements. Definition of these priorities offered knowledge to the highway department concerning
the importance of small details in relation to the larger infrastructure. The elderly people in the study district found new
ways to communicate with and influence those within the community who are responsible for these matters.
It is well accepted that mobility is often closely linked to one's independence, well-being, and quality of life. This research seeks to quantify the impacts of transport mobility and investigate their impacts on the quality of life for non-working elderly Canadians. Statistics Canada's Time-Use data are used to develop contextually-derived time budgets that measure daily exposure to psychological, exercise, and community benefits of transport mobility. These time budget measures are stratified by dimensions of life situation and domains of subjective well-being. Results exhibit significant variations in transport mobility benefits by life situation and subjective well-being indices, and also indicate significant association between transport mobility benefits and quality of life. This research concludes with an evaluation of the potential for future applications of Canada's General Social Survey (GSS) time-use modules towards further development of an index of well-being that incorporates the benefits of transport mobility.
Police road accident data from Great Britain for 1990-2009 were analysed. RR(NF) is the risk of a casualty occurring in the first half of road crossing, the half nearest to the pedestrian's starting position at the roadside, compared to the risk of it occurring in the second half. Children and younger adult pedestrians had a high relative risk of being killed or seriously injured in the nearside of the road (RR(NF)). RR(NF) decreased with age, for men and women, but rose again for people aged over 85 years. It was also substantially lower for children under 10 years old. Three possible explanations for lifespan changes in RR(NF) were evaluated: that change results from slower walking speeds, from a specific failure to attend to the far side before beginning to cross, or from generalised attention control failure. Young people's higher RR(NF) is consistent with evidence that they are prone to generalised attention control failures.
Walking has significant health and mobility benefits for older adults. Previous environment-walking studies have focused on neighborhood environments, overlooking proximate site-level characteristics. This study examines both the neighborhood and site-level environments. A survey was conducted with 114 older adults from five assisted-living facilities in Houston, TX. A subset of 61 participants' environments was examined using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Multivariate analyses identified positive correlates of walking at the site level including yard landscaping and corner-lots, and neighborhood-level correlates including walking destinations, safety from crime, and sidewalks. Both site-level and neighborhood environmental supports appear important in promoting walking among older adults.
This qualitative study examined older people's walking experiences in 4 Ottawa neighborhoods. Seventy-five adults age 65 years and older who had lived in their neighborhoods for at least 2 yr participated in focus groups and individual interviews. Four themes were identified through data analysis: multidimensional personal meanings, navigating hostile walking environments, experiencing ambiguity, and getting around. Neighborhood walking was experienced within the continuum of personal and environmental change. Findings indicated that the concept of pedestrian connectivity must incorporate aspects of both intersection regulation and design to ensure relevance for an aging population. Participants called for more clarity about policies that affect pedestrian safety for older people. The overarching theme of getting around indicated that walkability assessments must consider how walking fits within an integrated transportation system and how accessible this system is for older people.
There is increasing evidence that the built environment has an influence on physical activity; however, little is known about this relationship in developing countries.
This study examined the associations between attributes of the built environment and walking patterns among the elderly.
A multilevel cross-sectional study was conducted in 2007. Fifty neighborhoods were selected and 1966 participants aged > or =60 years were surveyed. Objective built environment measures were obtained in a buffer of 500 m using GIS. Environmental perceptions were assessed via questionnaire.
People who lived in areas with middle park area (4.53%-7.98% of land) were more likely to walk for at least 60 minutes during a usual week (prevalence OR [POR]=1.42, 95% CI=1.02, 1.98). Those who lived in areas with the highest connectivity index (1.81-1.99) were less likely to report walking for at least 60 minutes (POR=0.64, 95% CI=0.44, 0.93). Participants who reported feeling safe or very safe from traffic were more likely to report walking for at least 60 minutes (POR=1.50, 95% CI=1.11, 2.03). The presence of Ciclovía (recreational program) was marginally associated with having walked at least 150 minutes in a usual week (POR=1.29, 95% CI=0.97, 1.73).
This study showed that certain built and perceived environment characteristics were associated with walking among older adults living in Bogotá. Further studies should be conducted to better understand the potential influence of the built environment on physical activity among the elderly population in the context of Latin American cities.
Adult pedestrian accident data has demonstrated that the risk of being killed or seriously injured varies with age and gender. A range of factors affecting road crossing choices of 218 adults aged 17-90+ were examined in a simulation study using filmed real traffic. With increasing age, women were shown to make more unsafe crossing decisions, to leave small safety margins and to become poorer at estimating their walking speed. However, the age effects on all of these were ameliorated by driving experience. Men differed from women in that age was not a major factor in predicting unsafe crossing decisions. Rather, reduced mobility was the key factor, leading them to make more unsafe crossings and delay longer in leaving the kerb. For men, driving experience did not predict unsafe road crossing decisions. Although male drivers were more likely to look both ways before crossing than male non-drivers, the impact of being a driver had a negative effect in terms of smaller safety margins and delay in leaving the kerb. The implications of the different predictor variables for men and women for unsafe road crossing are discussed and possible reasons for the differences explored.
This paper presents an analysis exploring self-reported measures of transport disadvantage and how these relate to social exclusion and well-being in Melbourne, Australia. A sample of 535 individuals sourced from a household survey explores ratings of 18 types of transport problems. The questionnaire also measured social exclusion represented in five dimensions including income, unemployment, political engagement, participation in activities and social support networks. Well-being was also measured adopting standard psychological measures of ‘Satisfaction with Life’, ‘Personal Well-being Index,’ ‘Positive Affect’ and ‘Negative Affect’.
Mobility is fundamental to active aging and is intimately linked to health status and quality of life. Although there is widespread acceptance regarding the importance of mobility in older adults, there have been few attempts to comprehensively portray mobility, and research has to a large extent been discipline specific. In this article, a new theoretical framework for mobility is presented with the goals of raising awareness of the complexity of factors that influence mobility and stimulating new integrative and interdisciplinary research ideas. Mobility is broadly defined as the ability to move oneself (e.g., by walking, by using assistive devices, or by using transportation) within community environments that expand from one's home, to the neighborhood, and to regions beyond. The concept of mobility is portrayed through 5 fundamental categories of determinants (cognitive, psychosocial, physical, environmental, and financial), with gender, culture, and biography (personal life history) conceptualized as critical cross-cutting influences. Each category of determinants consists of an increasing number of factors, demonstrating greater complexity, as the mobility environment expands farther from the home. The framework illustrates how mobility impairments can lead to limitations in accessing different life-spaces and stresses the associations among determinants that influence mobility. By bridging disciplines and representing mobility in an inclusive manner, the model suggests that research needs to be more interdisciplinary and current mobility findings should be interpreted more comprehensively, and new more complex strategies should be developed to address mobility concerns.
The neighborhood environment may play a role in encouraging sedentary patterns, especially for middle-aged and older adults.
The aim of this study was to examine the associations between walking and neighborhood population density, retail availability, and land-use distribution using data from a cohort of adults aged 45 to 84 years.
Data from a multi-ethnic sample of 5529 adult residents of Baltimore MD, Chicago IL, Forsyth County NC, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, and St. Paul MN enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis in 2000-2002 were linked to secondary land-use and population data. Participant reports of access to destinations and stores and objective measures of the percentage of land area in parcels devoted to retail land uses, the population divided by land area in parcels, and the mixture of uses for areas within 200 m of each participant's residence were examined. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate associations of self-reported and objective neighborhood characteristics with walking. All analyses were conducted in 2008 and 2009.
After adjustment for individual-level characteristics and neighborhood connectivity, it was found that higher density, greater land area devoted to retail uses, and self-reported proximity of destinations and ease of walking to places were each related to walking. In models including all land-use measures, population density was positively associated with walking to places and with walking for exercise for more than 90 minutes/week, both relative to no walking. Availability of retail was associated with walking to places relative to not walking, and having a more proportional mix of land uses was associated with walking for exercise for more than 90 minutes/week, while self-reported ease of access to places was related to higher levels of exercise walking, both relative to not walking.
Residential density and the presence of retail uses are related to various walking behaviors. Efforts to increase walking may benefit from attention to the intensity and type of land development.
Much of the literature on ageing and transport has been concerned with older drivers, which underlines the importance of private transport in their everyday lives, but little has been written about how a lack of transport impacts on quality of life. A survey was commissioned by the Office for Senior Citizens of the New Zealand government, and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2004 with 28 couples and 43 single people (14 men and 29 women). The sample was identified through Volunteer Community Co-ordinators (VCCs) and drawn from metropolitan, urban, small-town and rural areas. The average age of the men was 84.5 years and of the women 81.4 years, and all had been without private transport for at least six months. The interviews sought the experiences and opinions of older people who were ‘coping without a car’, and asked how this affected their lifestyle and quality of life, and how they met their transport needs. The findings reveal variations by gender, health status and personal outlook, including views on independence and reciprocity. While ‘serious’ transport requirements may be provided for by alternative means, the ‘discretionary’ trips that contribute significantly to the quality of life may be lost when private transport is unavailable. The findings have implications for local and national policy and planning, extend well beyond the sphere of transport, and illuminate processes of social exclusion among older people.
Based on an interactive road-crossing task, this study examined age-related effects on crossing decisions and whether or not age affects behavioral adjustments to the time gap. It also compared crossing-task decisions to previously observed estimation-task decisions [Lobjois, R., Cavallo, V., 2007. Age-related differences in street-crossing decisions: the effects of vehicle speed and time constraints on gap selection in an estimation task. Accident Analysis and Prevention 39 (5), 934-943]. The results showed that older adults selected a greater mean time gap and initiated their crossing sooner than the younger ones, indicating an attempt to compensate for their increased crossing time. However, older adults accepted shorter and shorter time gaps as speed increased, putting them at a higher risk at high speeds. Regarding adaptive behavior, the analyses showed that all groups adjusted their crossing time to the available time. Comparison of crossing decisions and estimations revealed that the young group had a greater number of tight fits and missed fewer opportunities on the crossing task, whereas these differences did not appear in the elderly. This suggests that the crossing decisions of younger adults are much more finely tuned to time gaps in actual crossing tasks than in estimation tasks and that older adults have trouble calibrating perception and action and perceiving possibilities for action.
To support planning, design, and management of pedestrian infrastructure, dynamic assignment models are useful tools. However, current models are network-based and presume that travelers can choose between a finite number of discrete route alternatives. For walking facilities, where pedestrians can choose their paths freely in two-dimensional space, applicability of these traditional network models is limited. This article puts forward an approach for user-optimal dynamic assignment in continuous time and space. Contrary to network-based approaches, the theory allows the traffic units to choose from an infinite non-countable set of paths through the considered space. The approach consists of three interrelated steps, that is: determining the continuous paths using a path choice model, assigning the origin-destination flows, and calculating the resulting traffic conditions. The approach to determine a user-optimal assignment is heuristic and consists of a sequence of all-or-nothing assignments in continuous time-space. The article presents the mathematical problem formulation, solution approaches, and application examples.
This study examines reports on fatal pedestrian accidents which occurred in France between March 1990 and February 1991. 1289 pedestrians were killed in these accidents. The main characteristics of pedestrians were analyzed: age and sex, movements, change of transport mode and alcohol impairment. In order to describe the relationships between the different criteria, a typology of pedestrian accidents is proposed. It is based on a correspondence analysis, followed by a classification. This classification clearly identifies four groups: elderly pedestrians who were crossing a road in an urban area; children involved in daytime accidents in urban areas whilst playing or running; intoxicated pedestrians involved in night-time accidents in the country whilst walking on the carriageway: pedestrians involved in secondary accidents and changes of transport mode. It is recommended to adapt information campaigns or education programs to the pedestrian group they address.
Older pedestrians have been shown to be over-involved in casualty crashes, compared to younger pedestrians, in recent reports. This study set out to investigate whether older pedestrians' road crossing behaviour might render them more vulnerable to crashes because of declines in their physical, sensory, perceptual or cognitive abilities. An initial 'blackspot' accident analysis highlighted the types of crashes in which older (and younger) adult pedestrians were involved and likely crossing actions. Road crossing behaviour was then systematically measured from unobtrusive video recordings of individual road crossings for a sample of younger and older pedestrians at several urban locations. On two-way undivided roads, older pedestrians crossed more frequently when there was closer moving traffic and generally adopted less safe road crossing strategies than their younger counterparts. On one-way divided roads, their crossing behaviour was considerably more safe and similar to that of younger pedestrians. The findings suggest that age-related perceptual and cognitive deficits may play a substantial role in many of the crashes involving older pedestrians.
To examine the relationship between characteristics of the physical environment and mobility disability in community-living older persons.
Cross-sectional study conducted on three groups of community-dwelling older adults.
Community-dwelling older people in Seattle, Washington, and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Fifty-four older adults (> or =70) were recruited from two geographic sites and grouped according to level of physical function (elite, physically able, physically disabled).
Subjects reported on frequency of encounter versus avoidance of 24 features of the physical environment, grouped into eight dimensions, using a five-point ordinal scale (never, rarely, sometimes, often, always). Never and rarely responses were combined and coded as not encountered or not avoided, whereas the sometimes, often or always responses were combined and coded as encountered or avoided.
Disabled older adults reported fewer encounters with and concomitantly greater avoidance of physical challenges to mobility than nondisabled older adults. However, both encounter and avoidance varied by environmental dimension.
Results support the hypothesis that mobility disability results from an interaction of individual and environmental factors. Mobility disability is associated with avoidance of some, but not all, physically challenging features within the environment, suggesting that some environmental features may disable community mobility more than others.
This study explored the relationship between pedestrian-friendly urban form as reflected in new urbanism design guidelines, and neighborhood service use, walking, driving, quality of life, and neighborhood satisfaction among older women.
A cross-sectional survey compared residents of census tracts similar indemographic characteristics but differing in urban form.
The setting was urban and suburban areas of Portland, Oregon.
The sample consisted of 372 females living alone over age 70 in six census tracts; 133 (36%) completed surveys.
The New Urbanism Index rated the physical features of respondents' neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Resident Survey assessed travel modes and neighborhood satisfaction. The Quality of Life Index measured resident well-being. The Dartmouth COOP Functional Health Charts measured health status. Group comparisons were made with t-tests and regression analysis.
Although limited by the cross-sectional design, the study showed that new urbanism partially explained several differences in service use and activity: distance to a grocery store (r2 change = .11, p = .001), number of services used within 1 mile from home (r2 change = .06, p = .007), number of walking activities (r2 change = .08, p = .001), number of services accessed by walking (r2 change = .14, p = .000), and number of services accessed by driving (r2 change = .05, p = .001).
Traditional urban neighborhoods with mixed services and good pedestrian access were associated with increased walking among older residents.