Livable Travel Environments

Some communities have been designed to offer affordable, accessible, and safe alternatives to driving such as biking, walking, and taking public transportation. These are known as livable travel environments. They typically include infrastructure such as sidewalks, bike lanes, traffic calming devices, and street lighting that enhance safety and accessibility. These communities promote health, enhance social connections, and support environmental sustainability.

However, many people, including older adults, live in communities where driving is required. Residential housing is often located far from grocery stores, medical offices, and other essential services. Convenient and affordable public transportation options are limited. These communities are ripe for changes that expand transportation options. Initiatives that can help improve transportation options and road safety in communities include Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and the Safe Systems Approach.

Complete Streets: This approach is designed to ensure that streets and sidewalks are safe and accessible for all road users. Complete Streets are safe, comfortable, and convenient for travel by foot, bicycle, public transit, and car, regardless of age and ability. The Complete Streets approach encourages planners to include a mix of transportation options in project development. The aim is to achieve the right balance in a transportation system that is currently tilted toward automobiles.

Vision Zero and the Safe Systems Approach: In line with these efforts, communities are increasingly seeking to address road safety. Vision Zero refers to the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries. To work toward this goal, the U.S. Department of Transportation uses a Safe Systems Approach to prevent traffic fatalities and serious injuries. It recognizes that human mistakes are inevitable and that human bodies are vulnerable. It designs the transportation system to minimize the consequences of mistakes. This approach focuses on creating multiple layers of protection to prevent crashes and reduce the severity of injuries when crashes do occur. Vision Zero and the Safe Systems Approach recommend actions to ensure safe mobility, including:

• designing roads to promote the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists rather than focusing primarily on convenience for drivers,
• setting and enforcing appropriate speed limits (see also Safe Driving), and
• using vehicle features and technology to improve safety for people inside and outside of vehicles.

Transportation design and traffic management: Transportation design focuses on the physical layout and infrastructure of transportation systems, such as roads, intersections, and pedestrian pathways. Traffic management, on the other hand, involves the strategies and technologies used to control and optimize the flow of vehicles and pedestrians within that infrastructure. Essentially, design creates the framework, while management ensures it operates safely and efficiently.

The Federal Highway Administration has published a Handbook for Designing Roadways for the Aging Population. It provides guidelines to meet the specific needs of older pedestrians and drivers. Recommendations include adjusting signal timing to accommodate older pedestrians’ slower walking speed, enhancing the visibility of signs and pavement markings, improving lighting, and installing more visible pavement markings.

Supportive programs: Prompt medical attention following a crash is a strong determinant of survival, particularly for older adults. One example is the Yellow Dot Program, a safety initiative designed to help first responders provide critical medical care to individuals involved in crashes or other emergencies when they may be unable to communicate. These types of programs can limit the risk of fatality or severe injury after car crashes. However, some have raised concerns about issues such as privacy and legal liabilities.

Micromobility devices: This term refers to e-bikes, electric scooters, electric skateboards, and shared bicycle fleets. They both expand mobility options and present challenges for communities. On the positive side, micromobility devices offer low-cost and flexible alternatives to driving. For example, they can help solve the “last mile problem” to ensure that people can reach transit stations without driving, making it easy for them to use public transportation for the rest of their journey. They are therefore especially valuable in areas underserved by the current transportation system.

However, micromobility devices also sometimes present challenges to pedestrian safety, particularly when they are used or parked on the sidewalk. Local governments sometimes require micromobility companies to obtain permits and agree to certain conditions. These conditions can include designated parking areas, speed limits, operational zones, and maintenance standards.

Personal delivery devices (PDDs): PDDs, sometimes known as delivery robots or sidewalk robots, allow contactless delivery of food and merchandise. They offer convenience. However, an influx of delivery robots could pose sidewalk safety and accessibility challenges.