How Are Local Policies Promoting Older People's Mobility? A Case Study

Aging populations pose a challenge to many policy areas. Although the importance of the built environment on citizens' mobility and quality of life has been widely acknowledged in the literature, research focusing on elderly people is relatively recent and still scarce namely in Portugal. This article aims at understanding how local stakeholders perceive the built environment and occupational activities targeted to the elderly. The article focuses on the municipality of Viseu, a medium-sized city located in the NUTSII Centro Region of Portugal, considered twice to be the best city to live in in Portugal. Document analysis and face-to-face semi-structured interviews of local stakeholders were conducted. Findings show that there is still a need to take further policy steps to allow older adults to be more active and to promote the neighbourhood's walkability.