Accessibility

PTaccess - Newsletter 3

This is the third and final newsletter of the PTaccess project, which was an EC-funded research project. PTaccess examined the accessibility of public transport systems for people with disabilities in Europe. After the official ending of the project, final research and adaptations of the reports were conducted to be able to provide sound and profound results. Now all the reports and results are downloadable from the PTaccess website ( http://www.ptaccess.eu/Downloads.phtml ). Attached please find the final PTaccess brochure which summarises the most important findings of the project.

Costs and Benefits of Good Practice Examples

After having compiled the "Report on good Practice Examples of accessible Public Transport" ( http://www.ptaccess.eu/Downloads/PTaccess_D.2.1.good_practice.pdf )with 73 good practice approaches across Europe we did a closer look to the costs and benefits of accessibility measures in public transport.

Despite the wide introduction of different approaches in Europe, the evaluation of those activities is, for various reasons, still at an early stage. Accessibility measures in public transport are often implemented without using an evaluation approach at all. If evaluation takes place it is predominantly undertaken using participation processes which, no doubt, have to play an important role when evaluating public transport accessibility but are not sufficient for an holistic assessment.

PTaccess developed an assessment tool for measures to improve public transport systems' accessibility. This is focussed on three components influenced by the specific measures: Opportunities, Behaviour and Satisfaction. Thus we assess the influence of the (planned) measure on the objective quality of life (available options), on the system performance and on individual realised behaviour, as well as on the subjective perception of quality of life of disabled people. Beside a qualitative analysis, indicators are developed to support the evaluation process. Monetary and non-monetary effects, e.g. environmental benefits, lower fuel consumption, social exclusion/ inclusion, increased satisfaction etc., are also included. A clearly laid out evaluation tableau is developed to summarise all important information.

Example applications are shown for information services, infrastructure measures, mobility training and the replacement of special services.

As there is almost no evaluation of measures in accessible public transport practiced yet, in many examples nobody really knows whether the funds are used efficiently or whether there would have been some better ways to spend the money, yielding greater improvements for PRM. A holistic evaluation fails due to the lack of data within the EU. Here improvements are of the highest importance; only with collecting the necessary data does evaluation (and monitoring!) become possible.

That means the monitoring of the effects of implemented measures is necessary and should be strengthened to see what the changes are in a longer time period caused by the implemented measures. This also requires harmonised methods for collecting the data.

In the near future the problem of different technological standards for accessible public transport solutions (if existing at all) has to be addressed. On the long-term consideration more information, education and awareness of the issues is needed. Clear responsibilities on EU and national level as well as on regional and local level are fundamental for raising the accessibility in European public transport.

The full report on "Good Practice of accessible Public Transport and the related Costs and Benefits" ( http://www.ptaccess.eu/Downloads/PTaccess_D.2.1.good_practice.pdf ) is downloadable at ( http://www.ptaccess.eu/Downloads.phtml ).

Accessible Public Transport and Social Inclusion.

Earlier in the project, interviews were carried out with key stakeholders within all the European Countries (excluding the latest round of Accession Countries) to identify the key public transport accessibility issues affecting disabled people's ability to look for and maintain employment opportunities. Interviews were held with individuals representing National Government Transport Ministries, disability organisations and public transport providers. The results of these interviews were presented in the "State of the Accessibility of Public Transport Systems for People with Disabilities in Europe" report, available on the PTaccess website.

The last stage of the project was to draw on the results of these interviews, as well as the findings of the Good Practice Examples report and the Literature Review on Accessible Public Transport and Social Inclusion (both reports are also available on the PTaccess website), and carry out interviews with individuals representing Employment and Social Affairs departments within five EU member countries (EE, FI, DE, ES and GB). The aim of these interviews was to examine in more detail the correlation between social inclusion and disabled people's ability to access employment opportunities using accessible public transport.

The results of the second round of interviews reflect those from the first; although poor public transport accessibility is only one barrier that disabled people experience when accessing employment opportunities too often remains a significant hurdle. Transport networks comprise a series of links joined together, providing access to services; one poor link in this chain, even if all other links are fully accessible for the mobility impaired, is a barrier that may be insurmountable to people with certain types of disability.

Public transport infrastructure - stops, stations, vehicles, information provision etc โ€“ needs to be improved to widen the employment opportunities of disabled people. This will be expensive but with an ageing population it will become increasingly necessary, not only to improve better access to employment opportunities but also to other services, such as healthcare, shops, leisure activities etc.

Improving public transport infrastructure is not enough; service levels must also be improved. For example, bus services should enable disabled people in rural areas to access employment opportunities just as much as those living in urban areas, especially when no form of paratransit is provided. Even in urban areas, service levels might need to be enhanced or routes adjusted to benefit all passengers. There is a need to improve public transport and so reduce the dependence of disabled people upon paratransit; this will widen their opportunities for inclusion and make them less dependent so enabling more independent living.

While some believe that new technologies will enable disabled people to overcome their isolation by enabling them to work at home or at a distance, this does not remove the need to improve public transport as well. Not all people will work in information industries; other jobs should also be accessible. Furthermore home-working will not reduce the isolation felt by many disabled people and they will still need or wish to use public transport to access other activities.

The results of these interviews showed that attitudes are the main barriers for disabled and mobility impaired people in finding and maintaining employment. Changing attitudes is key to improving the employment potential for people with disabilities; improvements to public transport will be ineffective unless attitudes, both of employers and the disabled people themselves, also change. Nevertheless transport remains a significant barrier and there is a need to change the attitudes of public transport drivers and staff with respect to disabled passengers. The education and skills of the individual was also deemed an important barrier, but through a change of attitudes, education and skills will consequently improve.

The five countries were also asked if they felt there was a need for new legislation or regulations, to which the majority agreed that existing legislation and regulations should be reviewed and updated. Some countries also expressed a need for better enforcement of current legislation and regulations to guarantee their effectiveness.

In summary, the findings of the research show that there is a need for a change in attitudes towards disabled people and their ability to access employment opportunities using public transport. These improvements alone will not be enough to break down the other barriers that exist within society that prevent disabled people from accessing employment, but they can help to reduce the wider social exclusion gap. The full report can be downloaded from the website.

PTaccess Brochure

The PTaccess brochure presents an overview of the results and the findings of each research theme. It provides a comprehensive and concise summary of the most important findings and can be downloaded from the the project website www.ptaccess.eu

More information

All the results, reports and deliverables can be downloaded from the the project website www.ptaccess.eu

For specific questions or background information please contact our project team (see partners and contact information section below).

Partners and Contact Information

Project Coordinator

Austrian Mobility Research FGM-AMOR, Austria (http://www.fgm.at)

Project Partners

Independent Living Institute, Sweden (http://www.independentliving.org) Technische Universitรคt Dresden, Department of Transport Sciences, Chair of Transport Ecology, Germany (http://www.verkehrsoekologie.de) JMP Consultants, UK (http://www.jmp.co.uk)

Contact

Ursula Witzmann, FGM-AMOR, Phone: +43 316 810451 -45

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When: 7/2/2014

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