Moving Ahead: Elaboration on Cumulative Effects on Urban and Suburban Transport Ecosystems by Enhancing Last Mile Mobility of Older Adults and Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

Provision of fair, affordable and accessible transport is an essential objective of Smart Cities. In previous research, we outlined five action areas to enhance Last Mile Mobility for older adults and persons with disabilities. Following up, we expand our view towards a wider Smart City context, reflecting on needs of other target audiences of urban and suburban transport systems. By analyzing the effects of an enhanced Last Mile Mobility on children, adolescents and marginalized persons, we conclude to review the transport ecosystem as a whole. Based on this holistic view, we elaborate further on previously identified action areas, focusing first on the three action areas, which describe a transport system’s service quality: spread of service areas, accessibility of provided services, and availability of demand-driven services. We continue to deepen our view on the potential role of paratransit services within the urban transport ecosystem (action area 4), and finally delve into policy needs and recommendations to maximize Last Mile mobility in Smart Cities (action area 5). We conclude our work with a suggestion for future pilot implementation based on our findings.