Impact of street-level barriers on walking accessibility for persons with declining mobility: Comparison of two cities

Walking impairments accompany aging for many adults. People with mobility disabilities are concerned with microscale street factors constraining their walking opportunities. Despite there being many guidelines in place, our cities still have low mobility-friendly access for people with mobility issues. Four types of barriers (occurrence of stairs, unpaved surfaces, narrow sidewalks and steep gradients) were examined using recommended limit values for disabled people. For two Czech cities, Hradec Kralove and Ostrava, 13 footpath networks were developed, considering various single or combined barriers. Network analysis evaluated the walking distances from each dwelling to all shops within 3 maximal walking radii (400, 800 and 1200 m). It was confirmed that the spatial coincidence of the explored barriers is generally low. Walking accessibility changes between non-restricted and barrier-free routes were assessed. The impact of stairs and unpaved surfaces, despite their frequency, is minimal due to the general ease of detouring around them. Requirements for path width (150 cm, 90 cm) and gradient (5 %, 12.5 %) show high declines in accessibility. The full barrier-free model indicates an average decrease in the walking accessibility of shops by approximately 40–70 % causing up to 37 % of inhabitants to face a complete loss in walking access to shops if they were to develop mobility disabilities. • Quantified assessment of accessibility changes due to microlevel barriers • Identification of four types of microlevel barriers in 2 cities • 13 models of barrier-free walking combining 4 types of barriers with several limits • Assessment of barrier impact for 40,000 dwellings using network analysis • Comparison of two cities using 3 maximal walking distances