Accessible transport is a critical component of an inclusive society. It ensures that everyone can travel without being disabled by barriers in the transport system. WSP’s Dr Melinda Matyas and Natasha Healey report on their Interchange round table discussion

In the United Kingdom, the government’s ambition is clear: by 2030, disabled people should experience the same level of access to transport as everyone else.

However, research by the Motability Foundation has found that 38% fewer trips are taken by disabled people than non-disabled people.

Bringing customers and industry together to discuss barriers and solutions

We used our roundtable at Interchange to bring together a cross-section of transport professionals on the topic. This included transport authorities and agencies, third-sector and advocacy organisations and designers working on transport and urban realm projects.

Following an opening conversation to reflect on barriers that participants had experienced as customers, we focused on the barriers they faced as professionals delivering projects and operations for customers. We were able to summarise these into four areas:

Cost vs customer: For some, the reality remains that cost is a bigger driver in transport investment and decision-making than experience and accessibility,
Complex interfaces: Navigating different interfaces between different transport modes, each with their own operators, policies, and standards,
Trade-offs: With external drivers from carbon to safety, cost to biodiversity, how do we find the balance within competing needs? Are there solutions that improve transport for society as a whole?
Knowledge: The evidence base from which transport planners make decisions, is limited, and some do not know how to ensure disabled voices are part of their projects and services.

While is clear is that barriers to transport exist, we need to focus on how to find solutions and implement change.

This led us into the second part of our roundtable discussion that focused on solutions and action areas from the perspective of transport professionals. Here are two key takeaways:

Meaningful inclusion in decision-making: Disabled people need to be part of decision-making in all aspects of the transport sector. This includes transport employers making adjustments to enable more disabled employees to work in the sector, engaging with disabled people to capture their expertise and insights, and changing policies, business cases, procurement and decision-making frameworks.
Connectivity and storytelling: We also need to engage with both the public and transport professionals to emphasise why equity and accessibility matters. This includes sharing stories about how transport positively impacts people’s lives as well as highlight the barriers people face; reinforcing the need for accessible transport.

Improving accessibility is complex, but our conversation demonstrated that transport and infrastructure professionals are both passionate and knowledgeable when it comes to making a difference for their customers. The roundtable also showed the power of ideas when professionals from different organisations come together to tackle challenges.

Join the conversation on accessibility in transport

WSP is one of six partners in the National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat), a 7-year Motability Foundation funded consortium to shape the future of accessible transport.

ncat puts disabled people at the heart of the conversation about accessibility. Over 1,400 disabled people have already contributed their voices creating 200,000 data points, adding to a large evidence base for professionals to draw on.

Visit ncat’s website to find out how you can get involved or contact either of us. The programme is shaping how WSP approaches inclusivity and accessibility in transport, and increasing the importance we place on it in our own work.

Disabled people need to be at the centre of transport decision-making, closing the transport accessibility gap, and ensuring everyone can travel where and when they want.

Natasha Healey and Dr Melinda Matyas are experts in WSP’s Future Mobility team which aims to understand mobility trends impacting how we all live, work and play

Thank you to our round table contributors:

· National Highways

· Maynard

· Prosilience

· Mima

· Women in Transport

· HW Martin

· Sustrans

· Wheels for Wellbeing

· Transport for the West Midlands

· England’s Economic Heartland

· TRL