Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility: Addressing Gender and Ageing Issues

Motor Insurance and Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility: Gender Issues and Ageing Population. Emerging Trends and Policy Challenges Hotel InterContinental Santiago 6 November 2024

Sustainable mobility for Elderly Population Simona Viciani, University of Florence

-The preamble of the Onu Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2007) emphasises the importance of mainstreaming disability issues in relevant strategies for sustainable development . -in Art. 4, States Parties commit themselves to, inter alia, undertake or promote research and development... of mobility aids . -In Art. 9, measures to ensure access to roads and transport are also mentioned. -Article 20, on personal mobility, calls on states to facilitate the mobility of persons with disabilities in the manner and at the time of their choice and at an affordable cost and to facilitate access to assistive devices and technologies.

The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, suggests that innovation and advances in production processes, training and education are needed, that can address the challenges of sustainability with a cross-cutting approach and with an horizontal coherence between social, environmental and economic policies In particular, goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities- says By 2030, provide access to safe, sustainable and affordable transport systems for all, improve road safety, particularly by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly .

In Europe, the number of people with disabilities will rise from 16 to 24 million in 2060, with an increase of 49%. From these data emerges the importance for the new European Disability Strategy to adopt an approach and a vision that can accompany us for the future. However, it is not easy finding the expression sustainable mobility linked to the topic of mobility for people with disabilities So, we need a change of perspective not only to know this, but to ensure that it can be connected and part of the sustainable mobility of our communities.

In Italy, in 2017, the second biennial Action Programme for the promotion of the rights and integration of persons with disabilities underlines the timely commitment to suggesting concrete opportunities for innovation and seeks to respond to the request for full and integral citizenship of the most vulnerable subjects, offering indications to rethink, as a whole, a society that is more just, cohesive and respectful of the many diversities that make up the national community . If they become the shared practice of policy makers, operators in the sector, and associations, sustainable mobility for persons with disabilities can become one of the paradigms able of directing the development of the communities of the future where even the road is a common good.

Nevertheless, fragilities that emerge for persons with disabilities are certainly coincident with those of the elderly who have the same motor, sensory and cognitive difficulties and who need the same aids to arrive at a situation of equal access to mobility. Often the two conditions match, increasing people s discomfort. Half of all people with disabilities drive a car and among those, half aged 64 and over, continue to be car drivers. Approximately 1/3 of the over 75s have a severe limitation of autonomy and, for 1 in 10 elderly people, this concern both the daily activities of personal care and those of domestic life.

Italy has the highest motorisation in Europe: According to ISTAT, in 2018 there were 897 vehicles for 1,000 inhabitants. A situation that will be repeated in 2060, where we will go from 65 year olds to the over 74s. Thus, there will be a longevity that is also longevity driving a car. Car drivers are still firmly in first place in relation to other people with disabilities who move around, with an increase in car use as a driver that for the over 74s is up to 300% compared to the use of other means of transport.

The fragilities common to elderly and with disabilities people will have to entail also a common approach to identify suitable tools to solve or, at least, mitigate the problems that arise for these users. The limitations caused by different disabilities, and the same for older people, could easily be mitigated by the presence of automatic driving assistance systems ADAS systems are already present in many new cars and are able to compensate for all those driving tasks that are more difficult to perform with certain physical limitations.

It will be the vehicle itself that will read the signs with all the indications for an accessible refreshment point. The vehicle will in fact be connected in real time with the service station or road manager. The second phase will be the autonomous vehicle that will be able to take over, at SAE levels 4 and 5, all manoeuvres now performed by the driver, guaranteeing efficiency and safety An autonomous vehicle connected to the road can provide information faster and define its nature according to the needs of the person in the vehicle. The vehicle itself, connected in real time with the operator of the road or petrol station, will read the signs with directions to an accessible rest stop. The information will be communicated in the vehicle and it will be possible to make the most appropriate choice in good time. Digital mobility uses digital networks and connections both in a cloud system and between vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and between vehicle to infrastructure and other equipment (V2I and V2X).

With ADAS systems, the need for driver intervention is minimised as well as the difficulties a disabled or elderly person may meet in driving manoeuvres. In the future, the autonomous vehicle at levels 4 and 5 will completely eliminate the presence of the driver, thus resulting in greater accessibility to the vehicle and mobility, but above all with an almost total level of safety. Not less important will be the sharing of both private and collective vehicles, increasing transport accessibility even more. A shared vehicle that is able to provide all the aids and features required for the specific vulnerability. * Source https://www.stradeeautostrade.it/traffico-mobilita/la-mobilita- per-le-persone-con-disabilita-e-gli-anziani/

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