Sustainable mobility must also be considered for older people. The two-day final event of the Interreg BSR project GreenSAM on 08 and 09 September 2021, highlighted participatory planning approaches for senior-friendly green mobility options in Europe and presented approaches for a practical implementation as well as the acceptance of these offers.
The organizers of the event were the Hamburg district of Eimsbüttel, the Turku University of Applied Sciences (Fi), the Hamburg office ZEBAU and aconium. The focus of the conference was to present opportunities for participatory age-friendly mobility planning. The knowledge gained in GreenSAM during the implementation of six pilot projects was presented to experts and stakeholders in the field of age-friendly sustainable mobility planning. The following questions were the main focus:
- How can the gap between seniors and transportation planners be minimized?
- How can municipalities be empowered to improve mobility planning for seniors?
- Which models of support and consulting for seniors lead to success?
A collection of best practice approaches from the GreenSAM pilot projects can be found here.
Expert presentations by Prof. Dr. Charles Musselwhite and Ph.D. Susanne Nordbakke on the special mobility needs in an increasingly aging society provided the content of the discussions with greater precision.
With a virtual panel discussion, the first day of the conference concluded. “How can seniors be motivated to participate in age-appropriate mobility planning” was the final topic of the discussion. In addition to the representative of the lead partner from Hamburg, Silke Edelhoff, a senior representative and member of the Turku City Council, Ulla-Maija Vierimaa, and the speakers Prof. Dr. Charles Musselwhite and Ph. D. Susanne Nordbakke also participated.
On the second day of the event, five digital workshops for urban planners and mobility professionals used the insights from GreenSAM to enhance participants’ skills in age-appropriate mobility planning: What should be my first steps in designing an urban space to be age-friendly? How can seniors be encouraged to participate more? How can older people be helped to take advantage of digitalization and adapt to new mobility offers?
With the “Atlas on Participatory Approaches for Age-Friendly Green Mobility” and the “Toolbox” as a collection of different participation formats, the GreenSAM project provides municipal actors, decision-makers and urban planners with important tools to address these questions.
Background
In the Interreg Baltic Sea Region project GreenSAM “Green Silver Age Mobility”, eight partner organizations are working on model solutions and participation instruments that can be used to increase the acceptance of environmentally friendly mobility offers among seniors. Together with the Center for Energy, Building, Architecture and Environment (ZEBAU), aconium GmbH was commissioned by the lead partner, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, with the project, financial and communications management of the project.
Further information on GreenSAM can also be found on the project website: https://greensam.eu/.