Safety of People with Special Needs in Public Transport

Abstract

Safety is one of the most important needs of all people, but especially those with limited mobility, who face barriers of all kinds on a daily basis. The article includes a review of organizational and legal solutions for the safety of people with special needs in public transportation, as well as preliminary research aimed at identifying and classifying barriers in public transportation that limit the independent movement of people with special needs. The obtained results will be used in the development of the methodology for assessing the degree of accessibility of the studied objects and will form the basis of guidelines formulated in order to modify the existing and design the future elements of the transport system according to the principles of universal design. The problem of the lack of accessibility of public transport is the center of interest of many entities. Its solution requires a complex approach in the design process, taking into account both engineering knowledge and knowledge of the needs and constraints of different user groups. The results obtained from the study will allow the categorization of public transport modes in terms of their accessibility.