Walking Activities in Odense, Denmark AENEAS, October 2009 Dorthe Råby City of Odense
Policy Framework and AENEAS Activities Policy Framework Interaction between policies, strategies and action plans in the City of Odense and our local AENEAS activities Improving the Accessibility in the Inner City A local AENEAS activity with focus on improving the physical walking environment Motivating older people to walk more A walking campaign with focus on raising awareness and encouraging older people to walk more in their daily life Odense 3 rd largest city 188.000 citizens, 40.000 are 60 years old or above
The Policy Framework Vision Policies & Strategies Action Plans & Activities
The Policy Framework an example Vision Policies & Strategies Action Plans & Activities Vision to play is to live Overall vision for the entire city enacted by the politicians Policies & Strategies Health Policy, Policy for Life of Senior Citizens, Environmental Policy etc. Accessibility plan Include political enacted objectives Action Plans & Activities Traffic and Mobility Plan, Accessibility Plan etc. Campaigns, physical interventions, participation, AENEAS activities etc. AENEAS workshops
Improving the physical interventions Objectives Encourage and promote walking by planning and implementing two senior walking routes in the inner city Collaboration to an accessibility plan for the city centre AENEAS activities: 2 workshops with the aim to involve older people Identify places where the accessibility is poor Present and discuss potential solutions in order to improve the accessibility Campaign when the physical interventions are carried out
Participative approach - 1 st Workshop What we did We invited people to help us point out places where the accessibility was poor What happened Approx. 50 participants Worked in small groups Each group were asked to mark on maps where they had experienced problems with accessibility and write a short comment At the end each group presented their conclusion
Conslusion the two walking routes The walking routes Important places Main station Pedestrian area Doctors & dentists Shops Green areas Public offices We found 88 serious problems 119 problems 109 inconveniences
Participative approach - 2 nd workshop What we did We invited the participants to a second workshop with the aim to present and discuss the two walking routes, barriers and potential solutions What happened Approx. 30 participants We presented the two walking routes and their barriers Potential solutions were discussed
Accessibility - future What will happen next We will start to carry out the physical interventions Campaign AENEAS activity When the physical interventions are finished we will invite the participants from the two workshops to a walk where the results can be seen Walking campaign
Walking Campaign Objective Encourage older people to walk more by arousing their awareness on how much or little they are walking every day Pilot project in Autumn 2009 4 weeks walking campaign With a pedometer it becomes visible how much or little people are walking each day it often results in an increase in steps
Walking Campaign what we did Pilot Project in Autumn 2009 We distributed approx. 500 pedometers to older people Arranged walking trips encouraged to additional steps Each week the participants were asked to register how many steps they had walked each registration gave a draw in a weekly competition
Walking Campaign first results The participants 55 to 93 years old Average age: Men 68 years and women 66 years 185 men (40%) and 275 women (60%) Number of steps Approx. 230 registered their steps each week A clear increase in the number of steps between the first two weeks In total the participants have walked more then 34 million steps
The End Thanks for your attention