Green SAM: Riga city encourages, within the inclusive, participatory process, Silver Agers to use green urban mobility. Zaļā mobilitāte senioriem (Green SAM)

Within the GreenSAM (Green Silver Age Mobility, EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme) project, Riga City applied a Mobility Lab approach as an interdisciplinary collaboration platform to test and co-design, through a participatory process, innovative solutions to ensure that seniors are not “left behind” with technical progress. The pilot aims to improve the offer of green mobility services and solutions to the senior-age user group as well as raise seniors’ awareness and ability to use contemporary green urban mobility. Three Mob Labs were held with the following focal areas: (1) initial solutions concerning how to adapt urban space to seniors’ needs, (2) adapting mobility infrastructure and surrounding urban public space (mobility hot spots) to the specific needs of the seniors’ target group, (3) Silver Age mobility challenges during and after the COVID-19 emergency. In addition to Mob Labs, other activities were focused on digital skills training for seniors (as the survey indicated that almost two-thirds of seniors own smartphones) and a study on senior-friendly blockchain technologies to support senior-friendly public transport. Other Silver-Agers-focused pilot projects within the GreenSAM project were implemented in Tartu (Estonia), Gdansk (Poland), Aarhus (Denmark), Turku (Finland), and Hamburg (Germany).