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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Show Me Where We Are Going: Measuring and Comparing Accessibility to Jobs by Public Transport for Individuals with Physical Disability in Montreal and Toronto, Canada

Accessibility to desired destinations or services has emerged in public transport planning as a more socially aware objective with which to assess proposed plans and the current distribution of the costs and benefits of the transit network. Yet in practice, not all public transport agencies are currently providing urban residents with comparable levels of service due to physical barriers in the public transport network that can significantly hinder the ability of individuals with physical disabilities to access opportunities. In countries without a strong federal accessibility act and/or with major financial constraints, some public transport agencies fall behind in applying universal access design principles, making it even harder for people with a physical disability to access opportunities. The objective of this study is to develop a methodology that can be used by public transport agencies or disability advocates to clearly highlight and quantify the performance of the public transport network in a region, in terms of providing services to people in a wheelchair and compare that to the service offered to an individual not in a wheelchair. In this study the authors use accessibility, the ease of reaching destinations, by public transport as the key performance measure in two major Canadian Cities (Montreal and Toronto). Furthermore, the authors focus on job accessibility in the most socially vulnerable census tracts in both cities, to evaluate levels of job accessibility for wheelchair users residing in socially vulnerable areas. The findings from the authors' study show striking contrasts between the number of accessible jobs by public transport for wheelchair users compared to the general population. On average, wheelchair users in Toronto have access to 75% of jobs that are accessible to users that are not in a wheelchair, whilst their counterparts in Montreal have access to only 46% of the jobs accessible to other users. This research is expected to highlight for public transport engineers, planners, policy makers and advocates for those with disabilities, the importance of universal access in a region, especially along public transport networks, using a widely used land use and transport performance measure.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD50 Standing Committee on Environmental Justice in Transportation.
  • Authors:
    • Gris�, Emily
    • Boisjoly, Geneviève
    • Maguire, Meadhbh
    • El-Geneidy, Ahmed
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2018

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 28p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01664129
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 18-00566
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 23 2018 5:14PM