Driverless Cars and Accessibility: Designing the Future of Transportation for People with Disabilities

This report summarizes current challenges that people with disabilities face and speculates as to which requirements might be necessary for a “fully automated” and “fully accessible” vehicle to indeed be accessible. There are still gaps in accessibility and plenty of lessons learned from several decades of experience with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in transportation. Therefore, new vehicle designs that incorporate fully automated driving systems, particularly those supporting demand-responsive passenger service (to include shared-use ride-hailing, micro-transit, and para-transit services), represent a unique opportunity to reexamine the needs of people with disabilities. Analysts predict that by 2040 there will be 33 million driverless vehicles sold globally (IHS Markit). Given the potential dramatic changes that shared-use mobility portends, this report recommends that a concerted research and standards/architecture development effort, and a focus on universal design strategies for “fully accessible and fully autonomous vehicles,” must be undertaken now.

• Record URL:
  https://static1.squarespace.com/static/596fb16003596e0fa70a232f/t/5c9bab319b747a61663ac9bc/1553705778370/ITSAmerica_Driverless+Cars+Accessiblity+Mobility_April2019.pdf
• Record URL:
  http://www.itsa.org/s/ITSAmerica_Driverless-Cars-Accessiblity-Mobility_April2019.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/64474
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract used with permission of Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
• Corporate Authors:

  Intelligent Transportation Society of America

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Bayless, Steven H
  • Davidson, Sara
• Publication Date: 2019-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; References;
• Pagination: 43p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Autonomous vehicles; Design standards; Persons with disabilities; Recommendations; Ridesourcing; Vehicle design
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Passenger Transportation; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01734884
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: 90RT5026
• Files: NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 25 2020 5:10PM