Promoting urban mobility in ageing populations

Abstract

Urban centres, especially the historical ones, are places where a greater number of elderly people are concentrated, both residents and visitors. It has been observed that neither the urban public space nor the transport system are adequate to the mobility needs of these groups. The project MOBI-AGE aims to do a bibliographical review on Urban Ageing and Ageing Healthy among other subjects and also study the adequacy of the urban space at the level of urban design and infrastructures and at the level of mobility and accessibility in the transport system, through the analysis of two case studies, in Coimbra and Oporto. It will study characteristics of resident elderly population, characteristics of the public space and characteristics of the transport system, identifying needs and failures. These processes will go beyond desk work, and will also have the objective of creating social innovation, by holding participatory and dynamic collaboration sessions with this population, assessing more precisely what their needs and aspirations are. A methodology for the diagnosis and classification of historical central spaces, particularly those that are the target of urban rehabilitation operations, will be elaborated from the bibliographical review and the evaluation work of the case studies, as to their suitability in terms of mobility inside the zones considered and between those zones and other zones of the city. This methodology should inform the future development of interactive information platforms, aimed at end-users of the space and not only for visitors, but also for residents, which will allow them to find solutions to their travel needs easily. In the end, a decision support system based on indicators and multi criteria analysis will be consolidated, together with a decision supports interactive platform. Representations on new target maps with target places and paths will be part of the information provided.