CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Jim Elliott, senior transportation planner at Toole Design, said community engagement is key to designing places based on facts and needs, not stereotypes. 

He mentioned Toole Design’s work on the “LA Safe Routes for Seniors” project, which aims to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes involving older adult Angelinos.

The project team’s approach to engage seniors in the planning process has evolved over time to emphasize in-person engagement opportunities, such as senior center site visits and one-on-one interviews, instead of electronic methods, such as online surveys, which some may have difficulty using.

“We need to control speeds and make it more comfortable to traverse streets,” said Jeremy Chrzan, multimodal design practice lead at Toole Design.

“We need things like pedestrian refuges that break up the number of lanes people must cross.

We need raised crosswalks — they are outstanding for people using wheelchairs for mobility and they slow down drivers. Even material choice factors in.

Fancy pavers that look like stones might look nice, but they often settle and become tripping hazards.”