A new, livable city – also for the elderly

Odense offers a range of innovations to make the city a fun and healthy place to live in.

[Odense, October 2009] Odense (Denmark) has just launched a new Traffic and Mobility Plan which gives a unique opportunity to create a new, livable city. The plan focuses on giving better opportunities to citizens to walk, cycle and use public transport as an alternative to the car. The city wants to reduce car traffic primarily by prevent cars without an errand to go through the city. More of the small parking places will be transformed into places, which will give citizens a chance to take a break, rest, or look at different kinds of activity such as music, theatre etc.

In a ring around the city centre, we want to build large parking spaces under the ground in four strategic locations. From here, it will only take a few minutes to get to the pedestrian areas. And it should be easy to get to your destination from the parking areas. For those not able to walk it will be possible to go by a so called Citybus – a small electric bus. It will connect the large parking areas but it will also go around the bus station at the train station. The idea behind the bus is to bring people as far into the city centre and pedestrian areas as possible with a small time interval.

The accessibility in Odense is already pretty good. Many places the curbs are already lowered to secure the accessibility for people in wheelchair. In the junctions both sound and special spaces in the pavement help blind people to cross the street.

But we can do better in Odense and we have created a great foundation with the Traffic and Mobility Plan combined with the Plan for Accessibility. Both plans will be part of creating a more quiet and safe city for all citizens – young as well as elderly.