Walking still plays the most important role in the life of senior citizens. Due to limitations and restrictions because of ageing and disabilities,walking gets even more important in high age and therefore for more weak traffic participants. Studies show that elderly people tend to use the car, if the environment is not properly designed for their needs. As accidentrates indicate, the needs of non-driving elderly people are not considered appropriately yet. They are particularly endangered due to decreasing physical strength during accidents and falls. In the year 2005 approx. half of all pedestrians and cyclists killed in Germany were at least 65 years old! A research project at the University of Wuppertal described typical conflict situations with severe injuries for elderly people. An accident analysis was combined with interviews and focus rounds. From the results, requirements of non-driving elderly people concerning the infrastructure could be derived. Overall, traffic for non-motorised elderly people needs to be safer and more attractive. With the help of a "local mobility safeguarding plan" every city is able to find problem areas. From this, choice and priority of suitable measures for improvement on the objective and subjective safety of elderly people can be elaborated. The use of this planning process should lead to an integrated project for sustainable urban development and compliant urban mobility. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract