Walkability assessment for the elderly through simulations: The LONGEVICITY project

In the context of global progressive urbanization and ageing of the population, the LONGEVICITY Project has the objective to study advanced solutions to assess and enhance the walkability of urban environments. This is aimed at sustaining the social inclusion of the elderly citizens. The paper introduces one of the research activities of the project, focused on the design of innovative agent-based model for the simulation of pedestrian circulation dynamics and street crossing behavior for the assessment of the level of walkability of the City of Milan (Italy). This is based on the possibility to model age-driven pedestrian dynamics while crossing as characterized by heterogeneous behaviors in terms of speeds and crossing decision. This is aimed at providing applicative design solutions to enhance the level of comfort and safety of the elderly while walking through the city and to sustain their active ageing.