On this episode we discuss the importance of mobility for all, and the accessibility of urban spaces as key components of healthy, active, and safe urban roads.

While we recognize the complexity of this issue, changing the culture around how we design and use streets, roads, and other public spaces to be more accessible and inclusive to other road users beyond drivers will improve road safety. For urban roads to be truly accessible, they must be inclusive, safe, and usable for all. Traditionally, accessibility has referred to people with differing levels of mobility or disability, road safety experts emphasized that this must be extended to include gender, cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic status, geographies, as well as a variety of other factors that can make road users vulnerable. In urban design and the built environment, collaboration with communities and facilitation of interest group involvement in planning and design should reduce systemic barriers to safe roads for everyone.

• Accessibility is about more than physical barriers: we need to think also about how accessible our communities are based on gender, socio-economic status, age and more.
• Poorly maintained roads and sidewalks in the winter months mean many people who do not drive cannot move in their communities: clearing of sidewalks and transit pick-up spots must become a higher priority.
• Challenges on our roads have a disproportionate negative impact on vulnerable people in our communities.

Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Manitoba and a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Michelle Porter, joints host Pamela Fuselli for an in-depth discussion.

Listen and subscribe to Change For Good Roads on Apple, Spotify or wherever you catch your favorite podcasts!

Want to learn more about why it’s crucial to improve road safety in Canada? Check out parachute.ca/VisionZero and sign up for our Vision Zero network to receive news and resources so you can lead Change for Good Roads.