Senior-friendly urban information system – identification of a problem

Senior-friendly urban information system - case study Increasing urban population, ageing and growing importance of the elderly - those are three independent trends which are currently observed in urban areas. Place of a senior person within society is changing. Overlapping with above trends is inefficient city management as a consequence of growing and denser city population in big agglomerations. It is a common practice that seniors are perceived as second-class citizens. This is reflected by city politics which overlooks measures facilitating day-to-day existence of the elderly in urban space to the benefit of younger generations. City council is allocated a predetermined budget to cater for needs of various age groups. Those resources should be split in a just way, equally between all citizen groups. The evidence the city governing body is doing just that is assurance of mobility to all groups - including seniors. Bearing in mind their health, fitness, access to infrastructure should be facilitated by customising urban information systems to fit perception of the elderly. This way city management shapes city space, thus providing the space in question with new functions, enabling new bahaviours within the framework of the space that has been available so far. Creating a new system of urban information is therefore a management related problem that has to be dealt with taking city related factors into consideration. Decision makers have to solve a conflict that is observed between different groups of interest.