Older people and outdoor environments: Pedestrian anxieties and barriers in the use of familiar and unfamiliar spaces

Abstract

A limited number of studies look at older people's use of space outside the 'home' environment, particularly unfamiliar, public urban space. Such unfamiliarity can be created through older people travelling as tourists to new areas; as a consequence of urban regeneration; or as a result of cognitive decline, where the familiar becomes unfamiliar. This paper explores the experiences of older people as pedestrians in unfamiliar urban spaces. In looks at two aspects: older people's spatial anxieties and the barriers (physical, psychological, spatial and social) they perceive and encounter in unfamiliar surroundings. Forty-four participants who took part in a reality cave exercise and a sub group of 10 people who visited an unfamiliar area as pedestrians describe their experience of walking a predetermined route. Given increasing urbanisation and population ageing this is an area of importance to geographers and gerontologists. Our study showed that there are a number of barriers that are a concern for older people in new environments; these include poor signage, confusing spaces, poor paving and 'sensory overload' i.e. noise and complexity of the environment. Landmarks and distinctive buildings were more important to participants than signage in navigating unfamiliar areas. Such experiences can contribute to practice implications for planners in designing neighbourhoods to support older people. Small changes such as placing distance on clearly marked signage; giving further information about particular areas beyond the key tourist points and using landmarks as clear navigational aids are important. This paper also adds to the growing literature on geographical gerontology.

The Aging Urban Brain: Analyzing Outdoor Physical Activity Using the Emotiv Affectiv Suite in Older People

“…Research has suggested that poor paving is a barrier for older people in engaging with outdoor environments [34]. However, in this case, while the paving quality may be poor in the green space compared with that of the urban busy and urban quiet spaces, the urban spaces have an increased need for increased vigilance due to road crossings, increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic and increased levels of noise, combining to create potential 'sensory overload'.…”

Review of safety and mobility issues among older pedestrians

“…Older adults are generally found to be less efficient than young ones at determining the complex course of actions needed to reach the predefined goal; they make more mistakes and take more time to prepare the journey (Allain et al, 2005;Sander and Schmitter-Edgecombe, 2012). These findings are problematic, because before navigating to an unfamiliar place, older pedestrians often plan their journey on a map in order to reduce the risk of getting lost and the anxiety that ensues (Phillips et al, 2013). Age-related planning deficits are not as great, however, for more common tasks (e.g., Garden et al, 2001;Phillips et al, 2006), which are more similar to daily life situations in a familiar environment.…”

A Study on the Ecotourism Cognition and Its Factors

“…The result of the cognition process is belief, which is defined as the cognition evaluation of affairs according to specific attributes or characteristics. Cognition is the temporary understanding, knowing, and opinions of a person to people or affairs (Phillips et al, 2013). Lu and Stepchenkova (2012) defined "cognition", with general explanations, as all forms of knowing, including feeling, memory, inference, perception, plan, notice, imagination, expectation, decision, problem-solving, and thought communication to further discuss the ecotourism cognition of visitors.…”