Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Titre Maryvonne Dejeammes Senior project manager Evaluating PT Accessibility for Peple with Reduced Mobility

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Introduction  Accessibility of PT systems for people with reduced mobility is a major issue in European countries.  Evaluating PT accessibility is foreseen by policy makers, transport operators and end-users.

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 The European situation  Policies and strategies are in progress and action plans support and implement the policies.  Most countries have general regulatory texts on buildings and half of them have regulations based on the European directive for buses.  Recommendations for accessible light rail systems have been proposed.  Many countries view the special transport services (demand-responsive) as an improvement of PT network’s accessibility

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Overview of accessible transport systems in Europe  Low-floor concept of buses and light rail is the standard nowadays  Design of stops and stations optimise operation of such vehicles  Special transport services are operated either as feeder services or kerb-to-kerb with restricted admission  Development of passenger information and ticketing systems, accessible for various impairments

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Accessibility indicators for transport planners 1)  Survey in Europe (EuroAccess + PT-Access, 2008)  lack of procedures to evaluate benefits in terms of patronage, quality of service  Key indicators from Mediate project ( ) reflecting planning process and performance of implementation  How to reflect diversity of disabled people? How to cover all relevant areas relating to PT system?

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Accessibility assessment from end- users’ point of view  Major issue for disabled people: be confident that they could make the journey  Physical aspects of PT systems are difficult to incorporate into accessibility measurements  Discrepancy between disabled and non- disabled people’s opportunity to travel  Associations are asking for publication of monitoring measurements  Recommendation from Easter Seals, 2010: review the characteristics of different modes and their infrastructures. Need trained personnel for a consistent use of scales and surveys

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Accessibility indicators for transport planners 2)  Indicators settled for the DfT (UK) to judge the success of accessibility policies, based on journey times to education, employment, health and supermarket.  Problem : failure to assess the really perceived and experienced journeys of older and disabled persons (AUNT-SUE survey, 2010)

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – Legal measures  “Handicap law” of February 2005 requires: All kinds of disabilities are addressed, All public building be accessible within 10 yrs, All PT systems accessible within 10 yrs, Master scheme for PT accessibility (SDA) Accessibility appendix in the urban travel plan (PDU) Accessibility plan for streets and public areas (PAVE) Consultation with users’ groups

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – PT systems and street environment

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – Evaluation 1)  Annual surveys on PT networks provisions. Only a few data relating to accessible routes availability and passenger usage of special transport services  Grenoble conurbation data: High usage by wheelchair users (81% on the 3 light rail lines, 2007) Elligibilty to special transport service modified  Wheelchair users decreased by 17%, Vision impaired people more than doubled.

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – Evaluation 2)  Accessibility monitoring structure at national level settled up in 2010  National survey of mandatory planning measures (SDA, PAVE, etc.)  How and to which extend all kind of disabilities are taken into account  How special transport services are implemented and which difficulties are encountered  Monitoring the implementation and follow-up of the mandatory complaint process

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – Atlas of mandatory planning measures (2010)  30% approved and 52% in progress for urban PT authorities  Example of SDA in Bouches-du-Rhone department Unknown Approved Started process Not yet started

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 French situation – dissemination to end-users  Use of GIS data to provide information on the accessibility level of PT and its related environment via web sites Accessibility colour coding for sidewalk width, cut kerbs and bus stops: Yes: green, No: red, Acceptable: amber Audible traffic signs

Franco-Amrican seminar – January 2011 Future developments  Evidence of PT accessibility efforts should be better evaluated  Investments expenditure for accessible PT networks and related environments is benefitting to everyone over time, but failure to identify and value benefits  D. Lewis (2010) recommends to quantify: benefits associated with projected additional PT trip-making "cross-sector benefits", "existence" value and employment benefits