Green SAM: Tartu City encourages, within the inclusive, participatory process, Silver Agers to use the public bike-sharing system

When Estonia’s first public bike-sharing system was launched in Tartu in 2019, it became an overnight success. However, despite being free to use for seniors, less than 1% of all bike-share users were seniors. It became apparent that there were elements of the service that did not meet the needs of the elderly. Within the GreenSAM (Green Silver Age Mobility, EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme) project, the following activities have encouraged seniors to participate: senior-friendly instructions and tutorials on how to register for and use the bike-sharing system (study videos and paper instruction manuals were created); public events (lectures, practical training) were held at senior day centres; the current bike dock information stands were re-designed considering the needs of the elderly (simpler language, larger font, less text); and feedback from seniors both before and after the intervention was gathered during walking groups and meetings. It resulted in a two-fold increase and 60+ bike share users. City Transport has also increased its knowledge about and capacity to organize effective and inclusive planning and evaluation processes. The content-similar GreenSAM project (considering a bike-sharing system) was also implemented in Gdansk (Poland). Other Silver-Agers-focused pilot projects (albeit with different content) within the GreenSAM project have been implemented in Riga (Latvia), Aarhus (Denmark), Turku (Finland), and Hamburg (Germany).