Rethinking Public Transport Services for the Elderly Through a Transgenerational Design Approach

Abstract

In discussing the city suitability to people's needs, generally a special attention has been given to people with special needs, e.g. the elderly. In this sense, most of the research about accessible cities has focused on the architectural design of public spaces, aiming at ensuring the access to urban places through the removal of architectural barriers. However, as technologies have been diffusing in many different city services, it also should be given attention to the constraints derived from this unavoidable change affecting the elderly life. The focus is on the potential of the technologies for improving the elderly city experience. In this paper the authors, starting from the principles of the transgenerational design, focus on how the technologies applied to the public transportation services could improve citizen experience and promote really inclusive mobility services.

Developing public transport messaging to provide crowding information during COVID-19: Application of the COM-B model and behaviour change wheel

“…Behaviour Change Techniques have, thus far, not been implemented in the development of public transport messaging, to our knowledge. Previous literature is clear that messages need to be clear, simple and accessible to allow people to travel, particularly those who were more anxious for various reasons ( Suen et al, 1998 , Brons and Rietveld, 2009 , Grimaldi et al, 2016 , Department for Transport, 2017 , Department for Transport (DfT), 2018 ). The fact that public transport can now be a potential location for the spread of COVID-19 ( Flaherty and Nasir, 2020 ) means that it is prudent to use expert guidance regarding public health messaging and techniques which take the traveller into account, including barrier and facilitators to safer behaviour.…”

The Impacts of Urban Environment Aspects on The Life Satisfaction of Older Adults

“…Assessment of public transport measured the efficiency and the usage of public transport modes and one key question is whether or not they feel safe while using a mode of public transport. Older people may avoid using public transport for many reasons such as crowds, traffic, lack of available seats, and mental problems; thus, the existence of public space is not always reliable data (Broome et al, 2013;Grimaldi et al, 2016;Wong et al, 2017).…”