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Urban Dispersion and the Elderly:When Capacities Decline in an Urban Environment

that Demands High Levels of Competence

Pierre Filion

School of PlanningUniversity of Waterloo

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Organization of the presentation

• Aging in the city• Urban dispersion• Aging in the dispersed city• Accommodations for aging in dispersed

environments

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Aging in the City

• Ideally, easy access to daily activities preferably on foot• Need concentration and mixed-use• Avoid obstacles in the urban texture: wide arterials• Neighbourhood activity centres in the form of

commercial streets or other formulas• Activities and facilities organized at the neighbourhood

scale to encourage social ties• In such settings, relatively modest interventions can

maintain activity levels of the elderly in cities: groundfloor living; elevators

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• One of the idealenvironments forelderly: small townbecause of social tiesand proximity ofactivities (it helps ifthe climate isfavourable)

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• Full adaptation of landuses to a generalizedreliance on theautomobile

• Separation of activities

from each other by thespace devoted to the car

• Flattening ofaccessibility gradients,favourable to transitionfrom centralization todispersion

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• Urban dispersion is determined by heavy automobile use• Generally low density• Ever larger catchment areas for activities, which benefit

from economies of scale (makes them accessible only bycar)

• Lazy planning: space as buffer, land use specialization• The environment is not adapted to walking or public

transit• Factors of exclusions: lack of access to the car; loss of

driving competence• Need high mobility to enjoy accessibility• Depletion of proximity-based social networks

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• The dispersed urbanenvironment requires highcompetence on the part of itsusers

• Makes it difficult for theyoung, the handicapped, thepoor and the elderly

• In the case of the elderly, astheir competence declines,their time-space prism

shrinks (earlier in a dispersedenvironment than in otherurban environments)

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Example of Don Mills

• Don Mills was an exception in the dispersed realm inthat it provided a well-defined activity centre

• Heavily used by the elderly (Don Mills was one of

the Toronto neighbourhoods with the highestproportion of seniors)

• The indoor shopping mall was a popular gatheringpoint for the local elderly population

• Must mention, however, problems with crossingLawrence Avenue and Don Mills Road

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• The activity centre, and especially the shoppingmalls, served as a social hub for the elderly, which

was within walking distance of their home• Business was poor in the mall, so it was perceived as

a non-performing real estate investment• The mall was demolished and transformed into an

outdoor, upmarket shopping area: The Shops at DonMills

• Relies on a larger catchment area of car drivers

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Responses to aging in a dispersed environment•

Movement to a smaller city, which requires lesscompetence to negotiate (Stratford, Collingwood,Gravenhurst, Peterborough, Port Hope, Belleville,Kingston)

• Adapt driving to reduced capacities: drop driving onexpressways, then major arterials. When there is nomore driving on arterials it becomes difficult tomaintain daily needs in a dispersed environment

• Confined to an increasingly small area (time-spaceprism), more dependence on services to the home

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Policy Adaptations

• Topical improvements of the dispersed environment:traffic calming; longer pedestrian crossing cycles;location of some facilities close to sectors with high

senior populations• Home delivery for goods and services• Adapted living centres: retirement communities

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Conclusions•

The dispersed urban environment requires high levelsof competence on the part of its user• Causes the elderly to limit their participation to urban

activities earlier than in other types of urban

environments• Policy accommodations are possible but they have

limited impact in terms of elderly accessibility