Quality of the walkability for measuring accessibility. The case of the elderly people in the city of Milan

Walking is a key dimension for well-being in later life both indirectly—e.g. access to opportunities—and directly—e.g. active lifestyle and health. Consistent with these observations, transport, mobility and urban studies have been devoting increasing attention to walkability, which is considered a key contributing factor for reaching a liveable and age-friendly city. Research on walkability generally focused on the spatial features of the environment, taking into account the needs and preferences of an “universal” pedestrian. However, it is crucial to consider the variety of needs, preferences and capacities of individuals as well as the social and subjective factors, which are able to enhance or limit walking behaviours, in particular when taking into account an increased and differentiated population such as the older one. After a review of the literature on the topic, the chapter presents the results of the comparison between an adapted location-based walkability index (Kestens et al. in BMC Geriatr 16:96, 2016)—calculated through a GIS-based spatial analysis and the selections of opportunities of potential interest for older people—and the perceptions about environment’s pedestrian friendliness of a sample of 288 over 65 years old residents living in the metropolitan city of Milan—collected through the ALPHA scale (Spittaels et al. in Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 7:48, 2010). The results show a general assonance between the objective and subjective evaluation and a dissonance, namely in the case of women and oldest-old respondents. In this sense, we argue the need to focus more on the quality of walkability in order to contribute to an age-friendly city for all.