Paper presented at Ville et Vieillissement
Arles, France, October 1997
Improving accessibility to bus systems for elderly people
by Nick Tyler, Natasha Brown and Jenny Lynas
Abstract
This paper discusses the problems felt by elderly people in an urban environment
which is dominated by the car. It is difficult to cross the road, or reach
and use public transport because of the problems of getting around often
encountered by elderly people. Recently, design initiatives - such as the
introduction of low-floor buses - have become increasingly common, but
it is less common to find the associated infrastructure improvements that
are necessary in order to obtain a satisfactory level of accessibility:
it is not much use having a low-floor bus if people cannot reach it. The
paper starts with a general discussion of the accessibility concept which
has driven this research.
A hypothetical example is then discussed which shows how the policy
objectives which arise from taking this concept on board would be implemented
on-street in a small town. This implementation requires changes to bus
routes and service frequencies and also to the associated infrastructure
of bus stops and footways. Finally, the case of an operational example
of an accessible route in London is used to show how the route design was
undertaken in practice. The paper suggests that it is possible to design
accessible public transport routes based on users’ needs in a way that
gives elderly people more and easier travel opportunities.
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