Measuring spatial age segregation through the lens of co-accessibility to urban activities

A growing body of literature underscores the societal and mental health benefits of facilitating interactions between different age groups. While it is acknowledged that age segregation might be experienced in daily activities beyond an individual’s home location, the majority of spatial age segregation studies and corresponding measures are almost exclusively based on the concentration and distribution of age groups at the neighborhood level as the major determinants. Disregarding potential encounters with individuals from different age groups in places beyond the residential space could result in fragmented estimates of the level of spatial age segregation. To take such encounters at various activity locations into consideration, it is important to determine both how accessible these places are to individuals of different ages and the likelihood of being exposed to other age groups. This article introduces a methodological approach to assessing spatial age segregation that accounts for the degree of age-adjusted co-accessibility to different activity locations, in addition to the age structure of neighborhoods. We use spatially disaggregated data about activity locations across the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Eindhoven in the Netherlands to calculate several spatial accessibility metrics, and to estimate age diversity and co-accessibility scores for each activity. Our analysis results demonstrate how the proposed methodology can provide new insight into the potential moderating effect that exposure to other age groups in places outside of the home can bring to the level of spatial age segregation.