Elderly mobility solutions can be achieved with the sustainable electric vehicles currently on the market.
Grey but Mobile is about keeping elderly mobile. When elderly lose their independent mobility and rely more on care, they risk becoming isolated. The mobility solutions currently in use do not sufficiently match the needs of elderly in our ageing society. If we can find a mobility product-service system that does match their needs, the elderly can maintain both physical and social connections, which also benefits their health.
What makes designing such a mobility PSS so challenging is that mobility care for elderly requires a collaborative effort between many stakeholders with different interest. Many elderly also have different types of limitations or require a high level of care: one that is not often found in public transportation systems. This complexity makes it difficult to predict how stakeholders will respond to a newly designed PSS, especially when it is not offered within a proper context. People can only give realistic feedback when the test conditions are as realistic as possible. An environment that supports this notion is known as an inspirational test bed or experiential design landscape. Although this approach makes it difficult to generalise research outcomes, the benefit of using a set-up with actual stakeholder is that outcomes are both realistic and relevant to the condition studied. We are still investigating how we should handle this paradox and expect that our findings prove to be relevant for many PSS design efforts.
At the start of the Grey but Mobile project, the first inspirational test bed,“ Skewiel Mobiel”, was set-up at the Tellens Group, a care organisation in Friesland. Several volunteers chauffeur a rather basic, though highly appreciated electric vehicle and Tellens Group clients can book a trip for any short distance, whether for door-to-door needs or‘ just to drive around’. This valuable test bed provides a landscape for several studies to improve the initial design of this PSS. Studies have looked at the design of the vehicle and how well the elderly can enter and exit it, or addressed open innovation in this care environment, or looked at how the IT systems support the organisation of the service. These studies and the positive responses from participants and volunteers have led to an expansion of the Skewiel Mobiel PSS. The second example, Aevus, was a pilot study rather than a full test bed in October, during the Dutch Design Week, in Eindhoven. Four full-electric vehicles, driven by volunteers, offered mobility-on-demand transportation to clients of Zuidzorg, a local care provider. In contrast to the rural setting of Skewiel Mobiel, this study took place in a strictly urban context. Planning and tracking was also more advanced in this study.
Although it is still too early to draw conclusions from the examples described above and many workshops and new pilots are still in progress, we can report a few preliminary findings. We think that the elderly mobility solution we are testing here could be achieved with sustainable electric vehicles currently on the market. We’ ve also identified some ways in which the interaction with the vehicles can be improved as well as recognised the value of refining the planning and tracking of trips. These issues can likely be resolved within this project and as technology no longer seems a limiting factor, we can shift some attention to the behavioural aspects of the project.
The research is now at a stage where multiple pilots are set up, in a multiple stakeholder design process, with different care institutions in three regions of the Netherlands. Without CRISP, it would not have been possible to study how to improve mobility of elderly through their direct involvement in pilots in real situations.
Marc Beusenberg— 1964 c. m. beusenberg @ utwente. nl
. Assistant Professor at University
of Twente, Industrial Design Engineering, Product Realization, Technology diffusion, innovation assessment, electric mobility, safety design. Project leader CRISP project
Grey but Mobile
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