Conference on mobility and transport for the elderly and disabled persons

Avtor: Marko · 11/08/2015

Report from the TRANSED Conference – Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons, held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 27.7. – 1.8.2015 .

The leading theme of the conference was the provision of safe, efficient movement – transport – for all. The emphasis was laid on the free movement in traffic of elderly people, of movement impaired or sensory impaired people and also of people with temporary impairments (including young people with injuries, who, while expected to recover within a few months, need adjustments of the environment such as in access to buildings and similar).

The plenary part of the conference was attended by all major stakeholders in the examination, planning, use and design of transport policy for all. The United Nations representative, the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development highlighted the importance of the accessibility of transport for all, and presented the UN reccommendations. Also the representatives of OECD and Lisbon City Municipality reported on the European urban policy of accessibility and mobility for all.

The contents of the scientific part of the conference were divided in several sections. A significant number of papers covered the areas of mobility, transport and access for the elderly addressing their roles as pedestrians, users of public transport, airports and airplanes, and as tourists. The researchers reported about very diverse factors influencing the possibilities and quality of mobility, presenting diverse technical solutions to improve mobility of both movement and sensory impaired. The users mainly spoke about their need to extend the time of the pedestrian intervals in road crossings, the theme that was highlighted by the participants from Brazil, London, Lisbon and other countries and large cities.
The conclusions of the conference revealed a gap that still existis between the perception and knowledge of the mobility problems of people with diverse impairments, along with the gap between the technical solutions that are known and available, and their actual implementation in everyday life.