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Barrierfree Mobility in Asia and Europe
Barrierfree Mobility in Asia and Europe
Arndt, Wulf-Holger
Inst. Land- und Seeverkehr (ILS)
The Asia-Pacific Weeks (APW) have been taking place in Berlin for ten years. This year’s meetings are held from 10 to 23 September. The APW provide the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences between metropolises of these continents with a focus on creative industries and sustainability in urban infrastructure. Infrastructure is the main topic in the discussion about sustainable development of urban space. The main objective of the workshop “Accessibility for all” is the similarity of aging societies in European and Asian countries. The workshop will be part of the Urban Sustainability Conference, meeting „Urban Transport & Mobility“ and should serve as a starting point for new scientific co-operations. Modern societies are characterized by an aging population as a result of the shrinking birth rate and the sagging fertility rate. This development requires new constructional, informational and technical standards regarding mobility. In Germany the percentage share of the elder generation (people older than 65 years) will grow to 30 percent in 2050 from 20 percent today. This process is typical for the whole European region, where the number of elder people will considerably grow between 2010 and 2030 (+ 37.4 percent). This development is comparable to the situation in Japan. The percentage share of elder people will be in Japan about 37 percent in the year 2050. The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is also increasingly confronted with an aging society due to the One-Child-Policy. The share of the population which is older than 65 years has grown by about 50 percent between 1964 and 2000. Today this is about 8 percent of China’s whole population. Prognoses predict that beside the trend towards aging populations there will be a significant shrinkage of the spatial structure of settlement within the next decades. This process is not consistent in a regional and temporal way. Especially in prospering rural areas migration and aging exist in parallel. Immigration and certain socio-demographic effects (e.g. to start a family in a high age) may relieve the main trend of shrinkage. In particular, this effect is valid for metropolises. To provide mobility for everyone in a long term under these heterogeneous conditions is a new scientific and economic challenge. The social change of our society will also impact the mobility design in the future. Elder people will have a lower income. Wealth will not be described only by rate of consumption. This is also a chance for creation sustainable life styles. Due to these developments the challenges for mobility design are versatile and complex. “Accessibility for all” or “Design for all” describes a new approach to ensure social inclusion of everyone under these conditions of changing society. Existing instruments and scientific approaches of barrier-free mobility will be presented and discussed during the workshop „Accessibility for all”. The subject will be illustrated by using a travel chain as an example. This includes different aspects of a typical journey – (living-) room, building, vehicle and the connecting route. Not only the conventional barriers but also the “hidden” barriers between the single stages of a whole trip will be identified and eliminated by adequate solutions as a result of this approach. The planning of the workshop includes some impulse presentations of following subjects: Barrier-free information Barrier-free vehicles Barrier-free vehicles
