Age and the 20-min city: Accounting for variation in mobility

Abstract

The political popularity of the 20-min city is a result of its perceived equal treatment of all citizens, yet the ideal geography fails to consider the diversity of mobilities and needs of different age groups. If 20-min cities are to provide equality for people with limited mobility, they need to understand their location and proximity to the services which meet their needs. Considering older people as a subset of the population with diverse mobilities, this research provides a novel exploration of the issue of age and urban mobility through grounded analysis of the 20-min city against a geodemographic classification of older people in Liverpool City Region, England. We construct a new model of accessibility to services that takes into consideration varied mobilities for older residents. We find that reduced walking speed results in a significant diminution of service accessibility, but that this diminution is highly varied for different older person groups. This highlights the need for 20-min city planning to account for the needs of diverse older geodemographic groups and a tighter conceptualization of the 20-min city concerning equity to avoid the pitfalls of some similar urban planning concepts.