The CONSOL sub-task 5.2 objective is to analyse examples of practices aiming at managing the safe mobility of older road users in an urban environment. More specifically, this task reviewed good practices regarding accessible infrastructure and public transport from the perspective of older road users, identified safety issues relevant to older road users in an urban context. This report presents the approach followed and the methodology adopted. A tentative definition of a good practice has been agreed by the project: the practice has to be designed for older people (or people with reduced mobility), designed in cooperation with end users (older people), evaluated and sustained (duration of the initiative). The good practice case studies collected cover the urban context and the public transport area and are clustered in different themes: • Practices targeting older people - Personal transport schemes - User Training - Information provision & travel planning - Pricing and incentive measures - Policy for older drivers - Health issues • Practices targeting stakeholders, authorities, designers - Planners, transport operators staff training - Urban environment design - Integrated accessibility planning More than 40 good practices have been collected in 14 countries, including the USA. Despite of having elaborated a formal framework for the selection of good practices examples, it has been quite difficult to make a selection without subjectivity. It has also to be reported that the documentation available about practices is quite sparse and difficult to get. From all the cases collected it can be observed that few initiatives really target older people in the considered context. Older people are most frequently included in the “people with disability” category in Europe. Initiatives dedicated to older people are more frequent in the health, well-being and social (generation sharing) areas and this seems to show that European society still perceives ageing as mainly a medical issue. The other important issue highlighted by this report is that older road users are mostly considered as a homogeneous group. It is very rare that initiatives, designed to improve older people mobility and safety, specify the characteristics of the older people who participate. Gender differences are not considered for the setup of the action planned but it usually comes to the result that participants are mainly older women, particularly if the action is concerned with public transport. In terms of recommendation for EU policy or other research program, CONSOL is making the following recommendations: • Design focused actions according to the typology of older people identified by Haustein (2012): Captive car users, Affluent mobiles, Self-determined mobiles, Captive public transport users • Develop in a more holistic and explicit way the inclusion of older pedestrian needs in the design of urban infrastructures o Promote an EU older pedestrian environment friendly handbook: the limit of the person with reduced mobility approach could be that designers focus mainly on the problems of wheelchair users or blind people, but underestimate the question of older people • Develop awareness program on the potential benefits from the use of new on board technologies • Develop the knowledge on the trigger of modal shift for older travellers by supporting national initiatives. (Author/publisher)
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