An Assessment of Current Barriers to Accessibility in Public Transportation Pick Up/Drop Off Zones and How Solutions may be Applied to Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

Challenges that persons with disabilities face with current modes of transportation have led to difficulties in carrying out everyday tasks, such as grocery shopping and going to doctors’ appointments. Autonomous vehicles have been proposed as a solution to overcome these challenges and make these everyday tasks more accessible. For these vehicles to be fully accessible, the infrastructure surrounding them need to be safe, easy to use, and intuitive for people with disabilities. Thus, the goal of this work was to analyze interview data from persons with disabilities, and their caregivers, to identify barriers to accessibility for current modes of transportation and ways to ameliorate them in pick up/drop off zones for autonomous vehicles. To do this, interview subjects were recruited from adaptive sports clubs, assistive living facilities, and other disability networks to discuss challenges with current public transit stops/stations. Responses to questions were recorded and later analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to determine 1) common challenges with the current infrastructure around public transit and 2) the number of people who experienced each common challenge. Four challenges were mentioned by nearly every participant: timing or scheduling the transportation, uneven surfaces near the pick up/drop off zone, weather, and steep inclines around the pick up/drop off zone. Each challenge hampered the interview subjects’ ability to access their target vehicle and were mentioned by 90% of the subjects. These challenges informed solutions that could be applied to autonomous vehicle pick up/drop off zones and included on-site ride hailing mechanisms and enclosed, or at least covered, raised platforms with appropriately graded inclines. These solutions were explored using design software. Challenges with current transportation infrastructure were identified in this work, and their respective solutions can help ensure that future autonomous vehicles are accessible to persons with disabilities, a population for whom they have significant benefit.

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