It seems like "How To Design for Senior Citizens" is how we should be doing urban design generally

ArchDaily has a piece by Brazilian architects on "How To Design for Senior Citizens."

From the article:

Our old age is the result of our environment and the choices we have made. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), six items influence how we will age. These determinants are social, economic, behavioral, personal, the available social and health services, and the physical environment. We can reach old age as active individuals or as having an advanced level of frailty that compromises our functional abilities. To keep the elderly population healthy and active is a necessity and not a luxury.

But how do we keep the elderly population active? There are four pillars that are currently considered: health, continued learning and education, social participation and security, and protection.

This has been a thread in US urban design too for a few decades, in terms of providing accommodations in the built environment and transportation through legal means such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and requirements that transit agencies provide paratransit and medical transportation.

-- RespectAbilityUSA is an advocacy group addressing some of these issues.

More recently, it has moved away from a more strict legalistic approach, to concepts around "visitability" in terms of accommodation as we get older, and in housing redesign to support "aging in place."

There is discussion about what are called "naturally occurring retirement communities" and there has been a rise in the development of grassroots organizations to provide supports for aging in place. The DC area probably has a couple dozen of these organizations, such as Capitol Hill Village or East Rock Creek Village.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has older adult urban design initiatives, and like many other cities, DC has created an Age Friendly DC Strategic Plan.

-- AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities
-- Moving an Age-Friendly DC, Coalition for Smart Growth

But I think the point is that because much of the modern US planning paradigm was developed after WWII when the US experienced explosive growth especially among younger household demographics, that the land use and transportation paradigm ended up presupposing that everyone would be and stay "young and healthy."

Simultaneously, as we moved from more of an extended family, multi-generational household paradigm to the "nuclear family," somewhat isolated and contained, these "social, economic, behavioral, personal, the available social and health services, and the physical environment" elements within our lives because less flexible and less resilient as our capabilities and capacities changed.

This becomes very much pronounced as we age.  After a certain point, that automobile dependent isolated lifestyle doesn't work very well.

In any case, creating a built environment that isn't dependent on the automobile and prioritizes "health, continued learning and education, social participation and security, and protection" ought to be the priority, regardless of age.

Places that work simultaneously for children and families and young adults and older adults should be the priority.

That doesn't mean that every building needs to accommodate every possible group, but that neighborhoods more generally need to provide spaces and housing that do so overall.

The 8-80 Cities initiative brings a "universal" approach to planning and placemaking.

The work by Eric Klinenberg years ago, published as Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago which attributed a high death rate during a heat wave in Chicago among seniors to social isolation was quite damning in terms of identifying the problems of social isolation.

The problem hasn't gone away ("Estimated 70 Deaths Linked To Canada's Heat Wave," NPR; "Heat wave deaths will increase dramatically by 2080, study suggests," USA Today).

But you don't all of sudden become isolated.  It's a situation that develops over years and then may become catastrophic when faced with one or more changed circumstances.

Heat wave related deaths are merely an indicator of a deeper design problem.