GreenSAM

The project GreenSAM helped to involve the senior citizens more actively in developing green transportation solutions.

Project summary

Most city administrations in the Baltic Sea region lack structured knowledge of the mobility needs of seniors. Their awareness of the accessibility need does exist (barrier-free design of new mobility solutions) but psychological and other “hidden” barriers usually remain unrecognised. This is why public authorities often take investment decisions that are environmentally-friendly but not age-friendly. Although cities in the Baltic Sea region are introducing green urban mobility solutions, the majority of senior citizens remain reluctant towards these alternatives. This challenge concerns almost all cities in the Baltic Sea region and becomes even more important in the context of ageing societies throughout Europe.

Finding the ways together

The GreenSAM project developed a toolbox of good practices and identified the potential obstacles for the participation of seniors in the decision-making processes in green urban mobility. The toolbox applied by public authorities in Hamburg, Aarhus, Gdansk, Tartu and Riga enabled to exchange the knowledge and the best practices regarding how to involve the seniors and increase their acceptance of eco-friendly mobility services, such as collective transport and ride-sharing.

Budgets

GreenSAM
in numbers

1.94

Million

Total
1.53

Million

Erdf
0.00

Million

Eni + Russia
0.00

Million

Norway

Achievements

The project made an important step to increase the acceptance of eco-friendly mobility services among senior citizens.

The eight GreenSAM partners from six countries of the Baltic Sea region jointly developed guidance for improved participation of elderly citizens in green urban mobility solutions. The developed solutions focused on inducing behaviour change among the user group of elderly citizens, helping public authorities to gain structured knowledge on the user needs, and increasing needs-driven decision-making in urban mobility planning.

A big emphasis was made on the transnational exchange and dissemination of the results is an important aspect of the project, too. The dissemination strategy includes the exchange with seven Follower Cities: Gothenburg and Växjö (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Tampere (Finland), Vilnius (Lithuania), Gdynia (Poland), St. Petersburg (Russia).

The project also developed solutions and made impact assessment for age-friendly public space for green mobility. The partners explored a number of issues related to the general public space design with regards to senior needs. This included possibilities for making older people feel more confident with green mobility modes, exchanging the experience and success stories, as well as institutionalising of practices.

Outputs

Toolbox for improved participation in age-friendly green urban mobility

The Toolbox consists of 26 engagement tools ranging from simple participation approaches to more complex digital tools, which can be used to engage people that are in their silver age. To ensure the toolbox is easy to use and interactive, a filtering system was implemented to allow the user to find the best tool to fit their purpose. After the user has found the most suitable tools for them, they can read more about these tools (including instructions for implementation) in the concept papers. The Toolbox is available in all project languages, except for the concept papers which are in English.

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Age-friendly bike-sharing solutions and impact assessment

The bike-sharing solution has been mostly used by younger people. In order to increase its social acceptance, the city of Tartu has developed an “Encouragement package for silver age people in Tartu”. The partner has observed less scepticism and more active use of the biking and bike-sharing and opportunities by the 60+ group as the result of the project. Besides, the other municipalities have considered the biking within their policy studies and impact assessments of modelled solutions.

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Age-friendly public transport and impact assessment

Another mobility solution addressed by the project was public transport, considering the needs and barriers of older people. Different cities tried to involve the senior target group in dialogue and planning discussions. Thus, the City of Turku made a Mentoring Model pilot to encourage seniors to use various public transport opportunities. In addition, the project presented feasibility and impact assessment studies for better institutional support and planning of the public transport solutions. Learn more about the model developed by Turku and other inspiring solutions here, https://greensam.eu/pilots/

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