Designing Smart Cities: Prioritize Accessibility for Aging Populations

As the world’s population continues to age, the goal of making our cities livable, sustainable and inclusive should always be kept in mind. According to the United Nations, by 2050, the world’s population aged over 60 will double from 12% to 22%. While the aging population poses an array of challenges for governments around the world, it is also presents an opportunity to design smarter cities that are conducive to the welfare of everyone, regardless of their ages.

Designing Smart Cities that prioritize accessibility for aging populations is essential to promote a healthier lifestyle, increase economic productivity, reduce healthcare costs and, ultimately, enhance the quality of life of aging citizens. In this article, we will discuss how smart cities can deliver these benefits through several means that prioritize accessibility for aging populations.

Ideas

1. Smarter Public Transportation

One element of creating more accessible smart cities for aging populations is sans doubt designing smarter and elder-friendly public transportation systems. Public transportation is often the lifeline of a city, but this is not always the case when it comes to aging populations. As aging adults face issues with mobility and transportation, the goal should be to develop solutions that remove the barriers that prevent them from using existing transportation modes.

Aging persons often face challenges when using public transportation due to issues with physical mobility, cognitive challenges, and visual impairments. A smart city’s objective should be to make public transportation more accessible to these citizens by designing features such as sensory seating to help riders know when a bus has reached the next station or raised bus stops to help them get on and off the bus more easily.

Moreover, more smart cities are now exploring and implementing transportation services that are personalized and elder-friendly. For instance, Ottawa, Canada, has recently introduced Para Transpo, a service designed as a door-to-door service for residents who are unable to use regular transit services because of a disability, and for seniors over the age of 65. The service offers flexible and accessible transportation services, appointments for medical use, grocery shopping runs and much more. Against this backdrop, cities worldwide should prioritize the integration of ultra-accessible and unmanned vehicles that could enhance urban connectivity and make public transportation more senior-friendly.

2. Walkable Neighborhoods and Accessible Infrastructure

Creating more accessible cities for seniors can also happen through designing neighborhoods and urban infrastructure that make room for older adults. Walking is an excellent exercise that is both healthy and eco-friendly. However, cities that prioritize vehicular traffic, with narrow or non-existent pedestrian walkways, may present a significant challenge to those with walking difficulties, including seniors with mobility issues.

But walkability and accessibility are two critical features that modern urban planners must keep in mind when designing a smart city. For example, cities can reduce traffic speed limits, widen or add sidewalks, install crossings or ramps at intersections, and build bus stops that have benches and shelter to provide rest or protection from harsh weather.

Tangible design elements such as the absence of curbs, the proliferation of marked crossings, and the use of dedicated green infrastructure are also crucial for seniors to safely access public spaces. Additionally, the choice of materials used for pavement and tactile design of pavements can play an essential role in promoting accessibility to seniors with visual impairments or cognitive challenges.

3. Age-Inclusive Housing

The real estate sector is one of the key drivers that could make cities more accessible to senior citizens. While living independently, aging populations require housing that can help them perform daily living activities without facing challenges.

Housing preferences among seniors vary; thus, smart cities’ housing policies should be diverse to accommodate the different needs of the aging population. For example, some seniors may require adaptive technology to assist with various daily activities, while others may require loss of vision or hearing technology.

Aging citizens must enjoy the sense of community and ownership while being respected for their choices and independence in housing types. Smart cities need to invest more in innovative building design and planning that favors accessibility features like fewer stairs, wide doors and hallways, bathrooms adapted for seniors, and handrails in the bathroom. These features promote independent living and longevity for seniors.

Moreover, data analytics is emerging as a novel tool for understanding housing demand and preferences among seniors. Designer must utilize lessons from the analysis of data that engages seniors and uses their feedback to improve the quality of smart housing that suits their diverse needs.

4. Health Monitoring and Telehealthcare

Smart cities should also integrate remote healthcare monitoring systems that deliver immediate access to virtual health care services and proactive screening to promote aging citizens’ health and wellbeing. This enables seniors to take control of their health by early detection of health problems. This could help to prevent hospitalizations, and there could be fewer visits to the medical facilities, thus reducing the spread of diseases.

Telehealthcare systems and remote health monitoring allow medical professionals to easily analyze health data collected from remote healthcare monitors and provide more precise, personalized health care services to seniors. In addition, these systems provide seniors who are living independently and may not have access to caregivers to stay connected with medical professionals.

Conclusion

The goal of designing smart cities is to create an inclusive and sustainable environment that is accessible to every member of the community. The world’s aging population presents an opportunity to design smart cities that prioritize accessibility that ensures aging citizens live fulfilling lives.

More cities worldwide have introduced services and technologies aimed at addressing the challenges that aging populations face. Introducing elder-friendly public transportation systems, walkable neighborhoods, age-inclusive housing, and health monitoring, and telehealth systems are important steps towards creating smarter cities.

We urge the urban planners, architects, politicians, and everyone involved in creating smart cities prioritize accessibility for an aging population to promote economic productivity, physical and emotional health, and independence among seniors. By developing more innovative technologies and improving the quality of life, the aging population can remain an active part of our society for years to come.