Case Studies
City of Unley Active Ageing Strategy

Design Feature

Type of project
Local Government Initiative
State
South Australia
Location
Urban
Active ageing aims to extend the healthy ageing and quality of life for people. It seeks to do this by enabling continuing participation in social, economic, cultural and spiritual affairs and the labour force, as well as being physically active. The City of Unley has created an Active Ageing Strategy that guides Council's approach toward ageing and actions to become an Age-friendly City. Based on the World Health Organisation’s Age-Friendly Cities Guidelines, this strategy will ensure that the changing needs of the local community are met.
A commitment to age-friendly principles
The City of Unley’s Active Ageing Strategy purpose is to guide Council’s approach in all of its activities to promote active ageing by becoming an Age-friendly City and to ensure that it meets the changing needs of the population throughout their life time. The strategy also aims to promote health and wellbeing, participation, respect and dignity, as well as provide a sense of belonging through community connections.
The City of Unley brings a holistic approach to active ageing that encompasses outdoor spaces and buildings, social participation and transportation. A key focus of these elements is on increasing walkability through the provision of improved footpaths and walkways. To deliver this, the City has undertaken a footpath audit and condition rating which will inform the installation of wombat crossings (raised pedestrian crossings) and pedestrian refuges in high traffic areas, as well as the trialling of walking trails in the public open spaces of Charles Walk and Glen Osmond Creek.
In terms of future walkability objectives, the City's strategy identifies the following goals for the locality:
Pedestrian access and safety is improved through an ongoing citywide footpath upgrade program. program with a focus on age-friendly pathways, specifically focused on main streets, near schools and aged care facilities and highly pedestrianised pathways.
  • Road crossings made more accessible with more pedestrian crossings and the use of pedestrian countdown timers.
  • Continue to implement the Living Streets Program with an objective to enhance streetscaping, access and usability. 
  • Encourage walking through an increased number and quality of walking paths and trails.


The City of Unley has been committed to ensuring walkability and age-friendly principles are embedded in the upgrade of popular main street precincts, Goodwood Road and King William Road in the last five years. These initiatives include introducing new signalised pedestrian or wombat crossings, DDA compliant pram ramps, increased shade tree planting, improved night-time lighting and providing ample seating to allow for rest-stops in social settings, which will make the City of Unley a highly walkable place for older people
Project team
  • The City of Unley, (City Design team, Active Ageing team)

Project Cost
Unavailable
Health value
  • The Active Ageing Strategy sets clear goals for the City of Unley to be accessible for every community member, while promoting enhanced health and wellbeing initiatives.
  • The strategy envisions outdoor spaces that create an environment that is pleasant, safe and accessible, and can foster active ageing.
  • The strategy provides for opportunities of connection, inclusion and participation.

Economic value
  • Walking interventions and quality pathways can increase the number of people entering retail shops and trading locations by up to 40%.
  • The benefit-cost ratio of walking is found to be 13:1, delivering $13 of benefit for every $1 of expenditure. Based on a study from the Queensland Government (2011), for each person who walks 20 minutes to work and back, the economy benefits $8.48.

Environmental Value
  • The provision of quality pathways fosters positive environmental impacts for the City’s streetscapes and broader urban areas. A walkable city delivers environmental benefits through a reduction in vehicle emissions, improvements in air quality and a reduction in noise and dust pollution.
  • The Victorian Transport Policy Institute (based in Canada) has found that by shifting to walking from the use of the motor vehicle, an average saving of 15 cents per vehicle kilometre, and 30 cents per vehicle kilometre in urban peak conditions, is achievable.

Social value
Walkable neighbourhoods with age-friendly qualities allow the older population to live independently and access friends, social groups and community activities with more ease. This creates opportunities for social engagement and connection.
Use value
  • The City of Unley has a total population of 37,721 people. 22.6% of the City of Unley population is currently aged 60 and above and this is likely to increase, with the South Australian population ageing faster than that of other mainland states. By 2031, there will be more than 440,000 people in South Australia aged over 65, making up more than 1 in 5 of South Australia’s total population. Therefore, creating age-friendly built spaces is of significant value to the City of Unley.
  • Walkable pathways improve both the perceived and actual levels of safety in communities, via the perception of passive surveillance, which deters criminal activity and antisocial behaviour.
  • Investing in a more walkable environment can radically decrease the number of traffic-related pedestrian injuries as well as deaths.

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