Walking Made (Un)safe: 

Identifying Barriers to Pedestrian Safety for Seniors

Walking is a great form of health promotion linked to improvements in physical and mental health. But for all its benefits, the simple act of walking isn’t always straightforward, convenient, or even safe. It can be downright scary. 1 in 10 collisions in Canada involve pedestrians, and seniors account for over 16% of all pedestrian-vehicle collisions. This is a concerning trend because seniors experience more severe injuries and fatalities at triple the rate of younger age groups. But despite everything that is already known about the risk factors seniors experience, there is little research or data on the specific barriers seniors face while walking and/or rolling. Amanda Bishop is using targeted community engagement and data collection strategies to better understand these barriers, and to increase pedestrian safety for everyone. Join her for a conversation about this research.

Bio: Amanda Bishop is a MSc Geography candidate at the University of Calgary. Walking is her favorite mode of transit, but while at it, she’s constantly distracted by the lack of space pedestrians receive in our cityscapes. Therefore, Amanda has dedicated her research to understanding the pedestrian experience from the pedestrian perspective – the joys, ills, and barriers of walking, especially for adults over 64 – in hopes that she can find the keys to improving active transit through urban policy, design, and planning.