Providing accessible public transportation to persons with disabilities is an essential part of creating inclusive, supportive communities.
Providing accessible public transportation to persons with disabilities is an essential part of creating inclusive, supportive communities. Across the developed world, most major cities offer some form of program for creating greater accessibility within the public transit system.
These programs typically fall within one of two categories: either creating accessibility within the broader public transit system (e.g. buses with floors or ramps that lower) or paratransit programs providing a door-to-door service upon request.
While these services go a long way to supporting the mobility of persons with disabilities, the lower volume and higher cost-per-service mean that the availability and flexibility of these services falls well short of the standards in place for people without disabilities travelling on public transit.
Not all transit stations, buses, LRTs or routes are 100 percent accessible. And paratransit systems often require advance bookings, which means that users have to plan their trips well ahead of time. It is not ideal and could be seen as exclusionary.
Download the full article to learn more about how Autonomous Vehicles (AV) might potentially change the game for people with disabilities.