Accessibility in practise with a focus on older pedestrians

Accessibility throughout society has been gaining interest at the international as well as the national level. According to Swedish legislation, public environments should be accessible to all citizens by the year 2010. This paper focuses on older pedestrians, and aims at investigating how accessibility is dealt with and carried out in the municipal process of traffic planning: “accessibility in practice”. The paper also examines factors influencing attitudes towards accessibility issues among municipal politicians and employees. A postal questionnaire was sent to all the municipalities in Sweden (N=290) including questions about policies and funding for accessibility issues, efforts implemented for older road users, knowledge and usage of directives/recommendations and attitudes among municipal politicians and employees. The results show that there is a large variation in the extent of “accessibility in practice” among Swedish municipalities. Larger municipalities, i.e. with respect to the number of inhabitants, have accomplished more within the field. Statistical analysis shows that municipalities that have a plan for accessibility report more positive attitudes towards accessibility issues among municipal politicians and employees. Accessibility has become increasingly important in Sweden since the accessibility legislation came into force, even though a great deal remains to be done