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Older pedestrians’ perceptions of the outdoor environment in a year-round perspective

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Abstract

This paper focuses on older peoples’ needs as pedestrians by examining their perceptions of the outdoor environment in both bare-ground and snow/ice conditions. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used, including focus group interviews, participant observations, and questionnaires. The results show that older people consider accessibility/usability issues as very important and that the importance depends on such individual background variables as age, sex, occurrence of functional limitations, use of mobility devices, and dependence on walking as transport mode. In bare-ground conditions, physical barriers are more important for the oldest old (80+) and for older people with functional limitations or mobility devices. However, orderliness-related issues (e.g. cyclists in pedestrian areas, lighting, and litter/graffiti) are equally important regardless of the background variables. In snow/ice conditions, ice prevention is considered more important than snow removal. Snow removal on a detailed level (e.g. removal of heaps of snow on pavements and zebra crossings) is emphasised. In conclusion, it is important to study subgroups, not older people as one group, in the analysis of accessibility/usability of outdoor environments. Further, even though those accessibility issues emphasised in current Swedish governmental directives on accessibility are considered as important by older people themselves, especially among the oldest old and among those with functional limitations and mobility devices, the needs will not totally be fulfilled by current directives. For example, winter maintenance, problems with cyclists in pedestrian areas, and the need for benches are neglected.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial backing for this project by the Swedish National Road Administration. The studies were conducted within the Centre for Ageing and Supportive Environments (CASE) at Lund University, financed by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology and Society, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Hanna Wennberg, Agneta Ståhl & Christer Hydén

Authors
  1. Hanna Wennberg
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  2. Agneta Ståhl
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  3. Christer Hydén
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanna Wennberg.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 The 27 usability/accessibility factors concerning bare-ground conditions identified within the qualitative studies and the rotated component matrix from the factor analysis (the Bare-ground study)
Full size table

Appendix 2

See Table 6.

Table 6 The 18 usability factors concerning snow/ice conditions identified within the qualitative studies and the rotated component matrix from the factor analysis (the Snow/ice study)
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Wennberg, H., Ståhl, A. & Hydén, C. Older pedestrians’ perceptions of the outdoor environment in a year-round perspective. Eur J Ageing 6, 277–290 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-009-0123-y

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