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The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater understanding of the development of safer walking technology for people with dementia through contemporary literature.

A two stage systematic approach to searching the literature was adopted. Initially this involved searching the literature to gain a broad overview of the development of safer walking technology and the context in which it has been developed. Then, this literature was examined in detail to look at published evidence surrounding the use of safer walking technology by people with dementia. These articles were quality appraised and a meta ethnographic approach taken to synthesis of the findings.

There is a small but growing body of literature within this field. Whilst there is only limited evidence to support the use of safer walking technologies for people with dementia, the evidence to date indicates great potential for its use. If provided with the right support and guidance, safer walking technology has the potential to increase freedoms and independence for people with dementia; gaining them improved access to outdoor spaces and environments to support their health and wellbeing. However, if the safer walking technology continues to be associated with only risk management it will not achieve this potential.

The published literature within this field is small and has limited generalisability as much of it was generated in recent years has been by the same small research teams, often reusing data sets. There is also very little research that examines the experience of actually using safer walking technology and even less which explores the views of people with dementia. It is evident that a greater breadth and depth of knowledge is needed within this field to develop a clearer understanding of how this technology is used and perceived by all stakeholders concerned. In particular the literature would benefit from greater consideration of the views and experiences of people with dementia themselves.

For many people with dementia, health and social care professionals can play an important role in ensuring appropriate assessment and support in the decision-making process when using safer walking technology. However, greater support is needed in decision making for all people with dementia, especially those people not currently engaged with specialist services. Therefore greater awareness of the benefits and limitations of this technology is needed by all health and social care professionals as well as the general public.

At the time of conducting this review the author is unaware of any other systematic search of literature or overview of research on the use of safer walking technology and its use by people with dementia. Despite this safer walking technology is growing in popularity, commonly recommended by health and social care practitioners and often marketed and purchased directly by people with dementia and their families. This review offers an insight into the development of the technology and the current evidence base for its use.

People with dementia are prone to persistent walking (also known as ‘wandering’). Walking can bring physical and psychological benefits, but people with dementia also walk because of anxiety or confusion. People with dementia are at risk of becoming lost or involved in accidents, and this raises concerns for them and their carers. Electronic surveillance and tracking, as a form of safer walking technology, can be used to monitor people's whereabouts and is being used in dementia care. The technology raises a number of practical and ethical issues. This article reviews the key themes and arguments surrounding its use, with a view to raising issues for further debate. The article shows the need to carefully balance people's freedom and rights, including the right to take risks, with care and safety concerns.

Purpose – This chapter aims to advise the public as well as municipal, state and national agencies about how pedestrian safety can be improved through changes in our built environment. Higher safety can lead to more walking and thereby a more sustainable society.

Methodology – The chapter is based on a review of literature, including a review of published papers and field studies by the author himself.

Findings – To reach ‘acceptable’ safety levels, all arterials and collector roads – at least segments with more than 50 pedestrians a day – should have sidewalks. The sidewalks should be separated from the roadway by a curb if speeds are low and by a barrier or wide separation strip in high-speed areas; that is, where speeds are higher than 50 km/h. Local roads also need sidewalks unless traffic volumes and speeds are very low. The major safety issue for pedestrians is, however, where they cross streets. Elderly pedestrians and pedestrians in a great hurry or under the influence of intoxicants in particular need streets to be narrow and have low speeds for them to be able to cross safely. Marking crosswalks or even signalising them will have only marginal safety effects at best. Posting them for low speed is also not enough unless we have photo speed-enforcement ensuring that everyone drives slowly. Rather, using narrow cross-sections or speed cushions at the approaches ensuring that 90-percentile speeds are no more than 30 km/h at crossing points is key to safety. In between crossing points a speed of 50 km/h is acceptable with pedestrians on adjacent sidewalks.

Social implications – We as a society need to encourage walking as a mode of transportation since walking promotes better health and a cleaner environment; that is, a more sustainable society. However, it has to be safe to walk or people will prefer to drive to their destinations. Also, distances between destination points have to be kept reasonably short and the environment, where people walk needs to be interesting and aesthetically somewhat pleasing to encourage walking.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze walking activity and recent efforts at augmenting walkability conditions in the cities of Macau, Lisbon and Las Vegas.

The methodology consisted mostly of in-loco observations, pedestrian counts and extensive reviews of the literature, city plans and regulations.

The findings include the need to properly design, maintain and retrofit pedestrian facilities, while reducing safety conflicts among street users as well as the establishment and the nurturing of a culture of walking.

A fivefold international walkability research agenda with implications for other cities around the world is established: the value and the need for comparative studies and best practices; the need for urban design interventions; the cultivation of attractiveness and aesthetics; the implementation of safety, construction and maintenance criteria; and responsible funding programs.

This paper has twofold implications for stakeholders with direct responsibilities in the design, planning, building and maintenance of streets and public spaces, and for those who simply use those places at their own discretion.

A succinct set of recommendations include the need to augment endogeneity, the need to make cities for people and not for automobiles and commitment to resolving pedestrian safety concerns.

This paper discusses the factors affecting street vibrancy from both a stakeholder’s and a user’s perspective. The fundamental and inalienable right to walk is analyzed using the WPPFUS framework (walking levels, purposes, primacy of walking, facilities, unique features and safety concerns).

Given the unprecedented scale of the climate emergency and the need for swift and radical change in how we travel, it is important for local authorities to consider how best to use their ‘authority’ to initiate sustainable change. However, without collective decision-making, longstanding issues around equity, real, and perceived injustices will trump any good intentions and policies. In this chapter, I attempt to make sense of why the initial stages of the Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) a mobility scheme designed to tackle two emergencies – the pandemic and the climate – largely failed in the eyes public, even though it was designed with their benefit in mind.

As a relatively new city by North American standards, Vancouver experienced tremendous growth in the early 20th century. Constrained by its location on a peninsula and surrounded by water, early planning and engineering decisions supportive of citizen accessibility also encouraged and reinforced walkability through strong streetcar networks, walkable neighbourhood commercial areas and the availability of single family housing. Citizen engagement in emerging walkability projects was predicated by the successful stopping of a freeway through the heart of Vancouver. As Vancouver’s planning and engineering policy developed, citizens synergistically worked with the City on several emerging projects that reinforced connection and walkability across the city. Often incepted as demonstration projects, many of these initiatives have been adopted as city policy and have applicability in other jurisdictions.The walkability neighbourhood demonstration projects described can be replicated in other municipalities to create positive impacts on walkability and city life. The effectiveness of these approaches in walkability are echoed in the innovative Olympic Village neighbourhood which housed the athletes at the 2010 Olympic winter games. Many of the concepts and best practices developed in walkable community projects have been melded in creating a successful walking environment garnering world attention. By enhancing walkability in neighbourhood projects, communities strengthened their area’s sustainability and social networks. The synergistic work between the municipality and the community is vital to the success and effectiveness of demonstration projects that can be adopted later as citywide policy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of priming on people’s risk perceptions and safety decisions in a virtual construction simulator.

Civil engineering students were recruited to interact with a virtual reality (VR) safety simulator. They were divided into four groups covering with and without sound and with and without priming factors. Data were collected on the risks that they perceived and the safety levels of their actions.

It was found that obvious stimuli in a virtual environment with sound help people to recognise more hazards near the location of the stimuli. Sound is helpful in training simulations to create high levels of presence. However, priming factors are not suitable to be added to VR simulators for training purposes. Priming of safe choice results in people taking fewer risks in the VR simulator, but this does not carry over into other situations. Compared to priming effects, being “injured” in a training simulator with sound improves trainees’ ability to make safe decisions.

VR simulation is helpful in construction training because of its unique ability to give trainees exposure to dangerous situations without physical risk. However, the overloading the working memory of users is detrimental to the outcomes. Therefore, the optimum level of complexity in VR simulators should be further studied.