ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on older people’s lifestyle and contemporary design issues of walkability at the community level. Although it is a consensus that walking is an essential component of active-ageing, we emphasize that first it is important to understand an older adult’s walking behaviour, their trip destinations, and how they travel in a community in order to implement appropriate design improvements at the right locations. Considering the differences between individual communities and limited construction resources at the local level, tasks for older adults wanting to take a walk will vary accordingly. We believe that the discussion of older adults’ walkability should be from two perspectives: physical environment planning and design principles, and older individuals’ walking behaviour. A literature review of place-making theories and the development of inclusive principles are undertaken in the first part of this chapter. The second part tends to focus on the special characteristics of older adults and discusses the possible obstacles for them to take on walking. Body functions, personal status, and mental conditions are three key factors. The third part is to conduct a case study to identify the walking behaviour of older people in different urban forms in Tainan City by the NCKU healthy city research team in 2014. Finally, it is our belief that for older adults, a walkable environment holds the key for them to keep an active lifestyle and sustain their body functions from weakening too fast. It is the urban planners’ responsibility to ensure a functionally and aesthetically walkable environment that not only facilitates older adults’ daily activities but also encourages them to take a walk.
