Urban mobility and elderlies in Santiago de Chile: The value of integrating analytical methods, a case study of the San Eugenio neighbourhood

Abstract

Demographic changes in Latin America, and especially in Chile, indicate that the population is becoming older: already in 2050, one out of four Latin Americans and one out of three Chileans will be older than 60. Among the elements that contribute to the wellbeing of the elderlies, mobility and accessibility play a fundamental role. Priorities set out for mobility planning and politics should reflect these aspects. Nonetheless, the traditional methods of transport planning in Chile are not able to adequately grasp the forms in which elderlies move and access urban opportunities. We discuss the value of integrating different methods of analysis to better represent the mobility of elderlies. Examining the mobility and accessibility behaviour of seniors in the neighbourhood of San Eugenio, in Santiago de Chile, the paper compares the results of interviews and household travel surveys, observing to what extent these contribute to the description of mobility and accessibility for the examined population. The results show the relevance of qualitative approaches that, at the neighbourhood scale, examine elderlies, considering that these methods detect mobility practices and accessibility patterns difficult to observe with more aggregate forms of analysis. The approach to elderly mobility allowed by qualitative tools allows considering the conditions for their adoption when planning mobility at neighbourhood and municipal scale.