The GreenSAM project focuses on the development of age-friendly green mobility solutions based on needs of older people. This was done thanks to participatory tools used in six cities across the Baltic Sea region.
- 29 October 2021
Older people often remain reluctant towards green urban mobility solutions that are introduced in many cities in the Baltic Sea Region – such as bike-sharing offers or public transport systems. This challenge becomes even more important in the context of ageing societies throughout Europe. To unfold the full potential of green transport solutions, elderly people need to get on board.
Thanks to street talks, several workshops, visits to senior centres, conversations in buses or during peer coaching trips the challenges for older people in everyday mobility became comprehensible – i.e. it was explored, whether they were physical, digital or caused by the lack of needs-oriented infrastructure. The findings have been used to create a toolbox, so that a knowledge repository is now available for urban transport planners.
The implemented solutions are already showing positive effects. In Tartu, the share of older bike-share and public transport users has doubled over the course of the project. Here, the info-posts at bike-sharing stations were replaced with more age-friendly ones. In Turku, senior citizens helped each other to travel in public transport while young people showed the seniors how to use the city’s bicycles.
Not only the cross-national cooperation was profitable for the project, but also the mix of different institutions with different expertise and practical knowledge – from university to energy agency and city administration. A key insight for all pilot cities was that one should not rely only on creating instructional materials and disseminating them. Practical training and personal instructions are especially important for the generation 60+.