Accessible Public Transportation

Designing Service for Riders with Disabilities

Aaron Steinfeld, Jordana L. Maisel, Edward Steinfeld, Aaron Steinfeld, Jordana L. Maisel, Edward Steinfeld

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351644600
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The United States is home to more than 54 million people with disabilities. This book looks at public transit and transportation systems with a focus on new and emerging needs for individuals with disabilities, including the elderly. The book covers the various technologies, policies, and programs that researchers and transportation stakeholders are exploring or putting into place. Examples of innovations are provided, with close attention to inclusive solutions that serve the needs of all transportation users.

Photo of a sidewalk with pedestrians and a nearby metro bus.

Source: Douglas Levere

1 The Importance of Public Transportation

Aaron Steinfeld and Edward Steinfeld

Overview

Public transportation plays an important role in creating an accessible society because it is critical for ensuring employment, completing activities of daily living, engaging in citizenship, and participating in social roles and social interaction. Accessible public transportation in the community allows individuals with disabilities, especially those with severe disabilities, to have independent access to work sites, educational programs, health facilities, and social and recreational activities. In a mobile, global culture, full social participation hinges on accessibility of transportation systems.

However, the current state of accessible public transportation is a barrier to social participation and, particularly, employment. Approximately 6.5 percent of the U.S. population is 65 years and older, while more than 20 percent of the entire population has at least one disability (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). More than half a million people with disabilities cannot leave their homes because of transportation difficulties (BTS, 2003). Even when they are able to leave their home, one-third of people with disabilities have inadequate access to transportation (NOD, 2004). Consequently, four times as many people with disabilities as people with no disabilities lack suitable transportation options to meet daily mobility needs (NCD, 2005).

The consequences of inadequate access to transportation are severe. According to one study, 46 percent of people with disabilities, compared to 23 percent of people without disabilities, reported feeling isolated from their communities (NOD, 2000). Individuals with disabilities were five times more likely to report dissatisfaction with their lives than were their non-disabled counterparts, and a majority of those surveyed said that lack of a full social life was a reason for this dissatisfaction. Persons with disabilities were about half as likely to have heard live music, gone to a movie, or attended a sporting event or concert over a 1-year period (Hendershot, 2003; NOD, 2000). People with disabilities, in both urban and rural areas, frequently cite a lack of local transportation as hindering their ability to find employment. Lack of transportation (29 percent) was only second to a lack of appropriate jobs being available (53 percent), as the most frequently cited reason for being discouraged from looking for work (Loprest & Maag, 2001).

Unfortunately, public transit is facing significant funding challenges throughout the country, leading to significant cutbacks and reductions in service. The challenges of public transportation in general, combined with the critical importance of local transportation for people with disabilities and older adults in terms of social participation and employment, proves that there is a real need for innovation and knowledge that can help transportation providers serve all citizens more effectively and efficiently.

Why Is This Important Now?

There is evidence that the relative advantage of public transportation over private cars is changing, and not just for commuters. The time is at hand to seriously address convenience, comfort, and safety issues so that riding transit will not only be economically attractive but a greater value. Changing demographics mean that there is a particular need to address the needs of current older adults and the Boomer generation in addition to younger riders (Foot, 2007; Koffman, Raphael, & Weiner, 2004).

It is important to note that improving access to transportation has economic benefits as well as costs. Investing in public transit has positive financial impacts associated with air quality, productivity, leisure activities, and land use. Accessible public transit can fill the gap when independent driving is no longer safe, leading to potentially large safety and health-related savings. The loss of driving ability is a major trigger of relocation to long-term care settings. If public transportation can help delay the national average for such relocation by just one month, it could save $1.12 B annually (Johnson, Davis, & Bosanquet, 2000).

Although the proportion of older drivers is increasing, nearly seven million persons 65 and older do not drive, either due to health or financial deterrents. Older adults with lower incomes are particularly effected by barriers in public transportation systems because they rely on public transportation more regularly (Houser, 2005). One in seven non-drivers age 75 and older currently uses public transportation as their primary mode of transportation (Ritter, Straight, & Evans, 2002).

The Right Information at the Right Time

Many of the problems associated with providing effective and efficient public transportation stem from a lack of relevant and timely information, including schedules, route maps, route instructions, information on the real-time status of vehicles, and information about temporary problems along the intended route, which alerts riders to the need for finding another route. Due to the complexity and large geographic reach of public transit, without good quality information provided when they need it, riders often are unable to obtain effective situational awareness. This leads to an unhappy consumer experience, fear, confusion, anger, and reduced interest in continuing to use transit. This problem is well known to transit agencies. Transit agencies themselves also need better situational awareness about the status of their systems in order to adjust quickly and seamlessly to service challenges.

Many transit agencies are now actively pursuing novel methods for improving situational awareness through adoption of new information technology. For example, increasing numbers of transit agencies are acquiring automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems to provide better service. These systems allow the providers to track vehicles in real time and make adjustments rapidly, but, they also establish a potential to deliver real-time arrival estimates. Providing real-time estimates alone can increase ridership on some routes as much as 40 percent (Casey, 2003) and close to two percent system-wide (Brakewood, Mcfarlane, & Watkins, 2015). Such data is particularly important to people with disabilities. This group is generally more vulnerable to exposure in severe climates, often have medical needs that require timely attention, and have heightened concern about security risks while waiting at stops. The value of situational awareness is demonstrated by research findings for riders without disabilities. For example, use of a real-time arrival information system improves perceptions of security (Ferris, Watkins, & Borning, 2010a). Unfortunately, real-time arrival systems are expensive and often beyond the reach of cash-strapped agencies. Another important information need for riders is knowledge about system component maintenance problems. Few agencies provide riders such information and it is generally limited to elevator and escalator status. Another type of information that can benefit riders, even before they leave their origin for a stop, is information about whether the next vehicle is too full to board or find a seat. “Fullness” data is extremely rare in transit systems.

Applying a Need to Knowledge Model

Lane and Flagg (2010) outline a process that links research to development activities. They argue that research is most effective if it is tied to needs for knowledge that arise during the development process. The delivery of public transportation service is a development activity supported by many sources of information. Important decisions in the early stages of service planning and design cannot be undone, often for decades. Thus, an effective program on accessible public transportation should pay close attention to the related information needs of the industry.

Significant information needs about accessibility exist in vehicle and station design, service planning, and operator training. Important details about best practices, the needs of users with specific disabilities, the interaction of environmental factors and service delivery, and other issues are often hard to find or still yet to be studied by the research community. In general, the field has limited channels for sharing information, relies primarily on practical experience at the local level, and on anecdotal or case data rather than systematic approaches to information as part of the development process. Thus, the need for relevant research and development that is closely tied to practice is critical.

Currently, there are some well-developed strands of research within the field of accessible transportation. But, there are also many sources of information that can be applied to accessible transportation problems that are not currently being utilized. In particular, knowledge bases and ideas from the fields of human factors, rehabilitation science, and interactive design are not fully utilized. One example of the gap is the design of accessible information kiosks. For years, information has been available on ways to make such information accessible to people with a broad range of disabilities (see, for example, Subryan, Landau, & Steinfeld, 2012; Vanderheiden, 1997; Vanderheiden, Law, & Kelso, 1999).

The gap in application of available knowledge is an important issue that has not been recognized in the literature. Just as research should be tied to needs for knowledge, there is also a need to identify, organize, and disseminate existing knowledge in a way that providers can make effective use of it. This process should start with an understanding of how development takes place in the industry, what needs for knowledge exist and are currently unfilled, and in what form knowledge should be provided to be of most use to the industry. We hope that this book will help bridge the gap between research and practice, thus fostering better understanding of industry needs and raising awareness of systematic research that is ready for practical applications.

Photo of a suburban bus loop that has tourists gathering near a large bus shelter.

Source: IDeA Center

2 The Culture of Accessible Transportation

Edward Steinfeld

Overview

Social, economic, and political developments and trends combined with related practices create the culture, in the terminology of anthropology, within which accessibility to public transportation is achieved. In this chapter, we will examine this culture—the larger social context in which accessible transportation is embedded, and, the policies and operations that are used to implement it. This will help to understand the current status of accessible transportation, which intervention strategies are likely to be most effective, and how best to implement them.

Important developments and trends include national transportation policy, housing and urban development patterns, and demographics. Important practices include the policies governing the operations of public transportation agencies, and the business of purchasing, designing, and maintaining rolling stock and infrastructure.

Urban and Regional Development

Since the Second World War, most metropolitan areas in the U.S. have undergone rapid and significant expansion based on two new conceptual models of urban growth, the high-capacity highway and single-use zoning practices that were embraced in the U.S. after the War.

In the high-capacity highway model, multi-lane highways were constructed in radial patterns from the center of cities to the outlying suburban areas and around the urban core in circumferential patterns, or “beltways.” To maximize capacity through high speed limits, the highways were constructed with limited access. Unlike the traditional multi-lane boulevard, where all intersections were on grade, high-capacity highways only have access at “intersections,” which are built so that roads pass over each other either above or below grade. The growth of this highway network was financed in two ways, use of tax money to build “freeways” or private financing, through bond issues of government authorities to build toll roads (Weingroff, 2011). Later, the federal gas tax was used to build the interstate highway system, some of which is overlaid onto older toll roads and freeways. The impact of these practices, particularly, the funding of “free” highways through taxes, made commuting by automobile to new suburbs very inexpensive when gas prices were in the 25 cent/gallon range and parking costs were either very low or provided free by employers, civic authorities, and retailers. Thus, middle-class families who lived in city centers and new immigrants from rural areas could afford to move out of the older city centers and commute to their jobs from suburban locations. Businesses soon followed the exodus from the city centers because they also could take advantage of the inexpensive and efficient highway transportation system (Baum-Snow, 2007).

In the single-use zoning model, municipalities at the edge of central cities zoned their land for future development in a way that limited what could be built in each part of their jurisdiction to one predominant use (e.g., single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial, light industry, heavy industry, civic, etc.). The goal of these zoning practices was ostensibly to avoid the “incompatible” land uses often found in older cities where a factory could be located right next to a residential neighborhood. Typically, the zoning pattern followed the pattern of highway construction. The overwhelming pattern of zoning was single-family detached housing strung out along residential streets off “collector” streets leading to commercial strip centers. Commercial and industrial land uses were located near intersections. Multi-housing zones were limited to the suburbs and often located in undesirable land next to highways between intersections or adjacent to commercial zones.

In the first ring post-Second World War suburbs, relatively modest houses and lot sizes and grid patterns of streets were built to accommodate returning veterans and their new families. The subdivision plans of second ring suburbs often abandoned the urban grid pattern to reduce traffic on residential streets. By that time, the new houses had increased in size with commensurate lot sizes. In the development of third ring suburbs, starting in the 1980s, cul-de-sacs were used extensively, further reducing traffic in residential areas. Subdivisions in the latest wave of development have limited entries, are often gated, and are separated from the neighboring subdivisions. Even today, many suburban streets are constructed without sidewalks. These development patterns concentrate traffic on collector streets, reduce pedestrian activity to almost nothing, and increase the length of any trip, compared to the urban grid system.

Today we know that these two practices led to widespread urban sprawl and a heavy reliance on automobile transportation, for almost every resident of the suburbs, including children. In fact, the lack of sidewalks in many suburbs makes it dangerous for children to walk to school, recreation sites, and even to visit friends in nearby subdivisions. Thus, at an early age, citizens become acculturated to automobile transportation as the norm for getting around their communities. Presently, about 70 percent of all Americans live in single-family homes (U.S. Census, 2001). Sprawl had the side effects of highway congestion, increased pollution, and sedentary life styles, but living in sprawl has been the normal experience for generations of adults, most of whom have literally no experience with public transportation.

There are many other factors that contributed to sprawl such as government insurance for mortgages, tax, and monetary policies that kept the price of housing affordable; increasingly less stringent mortgage qualification practices that fueled housing booms; white flight from inner cities; the availability of free parking in suburban commercial districts; and, big box merchandizing. However, the two practices outlined above were the key factors that led to the current urban and regional settlement pattern. It should also be noted that rural areas did not benefit from these practices except if they became sites for expanded urban development. During the 1970s, it became apparent that public transportation could no longer be ignored, especially to relieve congestion and air pollution. To fund the development of new public transportation infrastructure and m...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Importance of Public Transportation
• 2 The Culture of Accessible Transportation
• 3 The Scope of Inclusive Transportation
• 4 Trip Planning and Rider Information
• 5 The Built Environment
• 6 Vehicle Design
• 7 Demand Responsive Transportation
• 8 Paratransit Scheduling and Routing
• 9 Location-Based Information
• 10 Social Computing and Service Design
• 11 Learning from Riders
• 12 Vision for the Future
• References
• Index