WHAT IS ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORT?
Accessibility refers to people’s ability to access goods, services and activities. It can, when discussing public transport, be categorised into two main perspectives. On the one hand accessibility is characterised by the time and cost associated with reaching various destinations from a given origin. On the other hand, it relates to the effort needed to understand the transport system, walking to stops or stations, the barriers when entering and exiting vehicles, as well as the cognitive effort needed to understand and pay for rides.
NEW SOLUTIONS AND TECHNOLOGY IMPROVING MOBILITY
Today, there are several options for people wanting to get to public transport stops or stations that are not within close walking distance. These include bikes, e-bikes, taxis and cars. However, they all present challenges in terms of physical accessibility, and monetary as well as environmental costs. Service that transport citizens to high capacity routes are usually costly to run and fail to appeal to all potential users. For a transport system to be both effective and accessible, better solutions are required to enable people to get to their nearest station offering a high capacity service. In the near future, we expect the concepts of shared mobility, mobility as a service, and autonomous vehicle to considerably disrupt the transport sector, while also having the potential to provide access to mobility for all in modern urban areas.
- Shared mobility is a transportation strategy that allows users to access transportation services on an at-need basis. For example, both public transport and car-pools can be counted as shared mobility initiatives. With increased digitalisation we can apply shared mobility even more, with apps and other technological tools facilitating sharing of vehicles.
- Mobility as a Service are mobility solutions that integrate services from several mobility providers into one single service. It is typically packaged as an app or another digital platform and provides services from public and private mobility providers. A user will be able to buy a trip from a mobility solution that fits his or her needs at a specific time and that takes him or her seamlessly all the way to his or her desired destination.
- An autonomous vehicle can sense its environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous vehicles have been operating for many years in rail systems in closed areas, separate from primary rail systems. These systems have been highly reliable and have shown the potential to increase capacity and improve safety, as well as reducing operating costs. The current focus is to start using autonomous vehicles in cities and have them operate on the streets used by conventional vehicles.
When done correctly, the mobility services of the future may offer the flexibility to move that is hard to imagine today. It will be easy to combine modes of transport, to vary the package of transport forms used from day to day, and to combine individual and collective solutions.