Research Roadmap Towards an Accessible Public Transport System for All

Bekiaris, Evangelos; Gaitanidou, Evangelia

doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.1103

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Not having full access to different travel modes may thus exclude people from various activities and lower their subjective wellbeing. Many researchers are aware of this link; however, looking past proposed solutions to reduce travel hardships with the aim of increasing accessibility in a cost-effective manner (Martens, 2012), or using objective determinants as the basis for accessibility evaluations (Bekiaris & Gaitanidou, 2012;Kryvobokov & Bouzouina, 2014;Lucas, 2012;van Wee & Geurs, 2011), we argue that, in order to improve social inclusion and wellbeing, we need to understand what drives perceived accessibility and use this knowledge to make it easier for people to be a part of society. Thus, perceived accessibility to social activities and friends cannot be evaluated using conventional accessibility measures, since these choices and routes are highly individual.…”

Section: Accessibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceived Accessibility of Public Transport as a Potential Indicator of Social Inclusion

2016

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Perceived accessibility has been acknowledged as an important aspect of transport policy since the 70s. Nevertheless, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this field. When aiming to improve social inclusion, by making sustainable transport modes accessible to all, it is important to understand the factors driving perceived accessibility. Unlike conventional accessibility measures, perceived accessibility focuses on the perceived possibilities and ease of engaging in preferred activities using different transport modes. We define perceived accessibility in terms of how easy it is to live a satisfactory life with the help of the transport system, which is not necessarily the same thing as the objective standard of the system. According to previous research, perceived accessibility varies with the subjectively-rated quality of the mode of transport. Thus, improvements in quality (e.g. trip planning, comfort, or safety) increase the perceived accessibility and make life easier to live using the chosen mode of transport. This study (n=750) focuses on the perceived accessibility of public transport, captured using the Perceived Accessibility Scale PAC (Lättman, Olsson, & Friman, 2015). More specifically, this study aims to determine how level of quality affects the perceived accessibility in public transport. A Conditional Process Model shows that, in addition to quality, feeling safe and frequency of travel are important predictors of perceived accessibility. Furthermore, elderly and those in their thirties report a lower level of perceived accessibility to their day-to-day activities using public transport. The basic premise of this study is that subjective experiences may be as important as objective indicators when planning and designing for socially inclusive transport systems.

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Section: Accessibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…holistic safety-chains from origin to destination (Bekiaris & Gaitanidou, 2012) and women's fears while in the public transport environment (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2009). Safety refers to the emotional evaluations (feelings) of the individual (Redman et al, 2013), whereas most quality dimensions depend on cognitive evaluations.…”

Section: Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Accessibility of Public Transport as a Potential Indicator of Social Inclusion

2016

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“…Farrington (2007) has emphasized a "fuller conceptualization of accessibility" meaning to propose accessibility as a basic human right, and The Social Exclusion Unit (2004) have long-term goals including accessibility to reduce social exclusion. The ACCESS 2 ALL EC-funded research group worked at establishing a public transport system "accessible to everyone", and as a part of this network, Bekiaris and Gaitanidou (2012) present a research roadmap aimed at directing research in specific areas to achieve fully accessible and safe public transportchains "as a norm" across Europe. In Sweden, where one outspoken purpose of having a transport system is "to create accessibility", perceived accessibility has been pointed out as an important goal with an emphasis on service quality aspects, such as facilitating commuting or making the system safe and accessible to disabled and children.…”

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confidence: 99%