Transporting Oversize Wheelchairs

This report documents and presents the problems with transporting oversize wheelchairs as defined by transit agencies, state departments of transportation (DOTs), vehicle and mobility device manufacturers, university experts, and advocacy agencies. It also provides information on the pertinent Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requirements for transporting wheelchairs on transit systems, industry practices on how to handle passenger requests that involve oversize and overweight mobility aides and passengers, and a series of recommendations for consideration by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Multi-State Technical Assistance Program. This research effort was conducted while the ADA was in the process of revision. However, after the completion of the research the Department of Transportation 49 CFR Parts 37 and 38 which are relevant to this study were amended and revised into final rule effective October 19, 2011. The final rule requires intercity, commuter, and high-speed passenger railroads to ensure, at new and altered station platforms, that passengers with disabilities can get on and off any accessible car of the train. Passenger railroads must provide level entry boarding at the new or altered stations in which no track passing through the station and adjacent to platforms is shared with existing freight rail operations. The level-entry boarding is characterized such that the height of the platform and the door height of the passenger car are aligned so that a passenger using a wheelchair can seamlessly move from one to the other (usually with the assistance of a bridge plate). The final rule does not require passenger railroads to retrofit existing platforms which lead to minimal cost effect to existing systems. The ADA amendment also made modification in the definition of “wheelchair” changing “three or four wheeled devices” to “three or more-wheeled devices.” The change recognized that in recent years, devices that otherwise resemble traditional wheelchairs may have additional wheels (e.g., two guide wheels in addition to the normal four wheels, for a total of six). The amendment also restricted the definition of common wheelchair to design decisions, rather than operating decisions. While the result of this change is not clear to the authors, it is likely to shift to the transit operating agency some burden for determining that certain wheelchair user combinations are too large or unsafe.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-65(31)_FR.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2841
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This research was sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, and was conducted in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, which is administered by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.
• Corporate Authors:

  AECOM

  3101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 400
  Arlington, VA  United States  22201
• Authors:
  • Baker, Scott
  • Truong, Vi
  • Riegel, Laura
• Publication Date: 2012-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 88p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Persons with disabilities; Public transit; Size; Weight; Wheelchairs
• Identifier Terms: Americans with Disabilities Act
• Uncontrolled Terms: Passenger rail; Wheeled mobility aids
• Subject Areas: Law; Public Transportation; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01670287
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCHRP Project 20-65, Task 31
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 28 2018 6:07PM