TITLE:
The Safety of Walking Space for the Elderly People Living in Communities in Beijing, China
AUTHORS:
Shuwen Yang, Qing Zhu
KEYWORDS:
Walking Space, Community, The Elderly People, Risk
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.5 No.4,
April
25,
2017
ABSTRACT: China has become an aging
society. Aging in place is an important option for the elderly people in China
due to the influence of Chinese tradition. Communities are the environment
where the elderly people spend most of their time. The walking space in the
communities is important for the safety of the elderly people. The research
studied the safety of walking space of the elderly people living in the
communities by using the data collected by observation, interviews and
questionnaire surveys. The results identified three types of risks which are
caused by pavements, public facilities and surrounding environment based on the
qualitative analysis. The results of the quantitative analysis by using SPSS
19.0 found that the risks are highest in surrounding environment than the pavements
and public facilities. The public facilities have the lowest risks. The
findings of this study provide knowledge for future transformation of the old
communities and the planning of new communities.