The Next Big Infrastructure Crisis? Age-Proofing Our Streets
Emily Badger – Age-proofing cities will be a cultural challenge as much as an urban design one. How do you get urban planners, transportation engineers, and anyone running around a city in their prime to picture the places where we live through the shaded eyes of an octogenarian?
Much of the rallying cry for age-friendly communities focuses on the notion of universal design – and its related philosophy of “complete streets” – which argues that whatever is best for the least mobile of us is also best for all of us.
The biggest challenge…will come from suburban communities where there are often no sidewalks at all, let alone places to go at the other end of them. Communities that are drivable but not walkable can quickly become isolated islands for those who don’t drive at all.
