Determining priorities in introducing accessibility measures for persons with reduced mobility (prm) case study: development of an assessment tool within the London underground network

Project Idea: Inaccessibility and mobility impairments affects millions of Persons of Reduced Mobility (PRM), within their daily lives as the current aged transport infrastructure remains largely inaccessible for PRMs and requiring major investment to provide reasonable accessibility measures to meet their needs. Currently, development of business cases for transport projects do not consider the quantified network effects of accessibility measures being added (or removed) from stations. This is because a quantified accessibility network assessment is not available to industry. Purpose and Objectives: This study aims to develop a quantitative assessment tool to support the decision on where, in the current network, to introduce accessibility measures, exploring the effects of implementing accessibility measures on the overall journey time of PMRs. The study had the following objectives: 1. To appraise the current systems available in the market place that allows users to assess a transport network; 2. To appraise the existing methods addressing inaccessibility in a transport network to understand their impact; 3. To create a user-friendly assessment tool that can allow users to add accessibility measures to a network and analyse the effects to journey time and distance; 4. To validate the developed assessment tool through a case study assessment. Findings and Originality: This case study assessment validates the need for industry to adopt the new assessment tool in order to provide quantified accessibility data within a network to decision makers and industry. This information alongside existing data used by decision makers will lead to a more effective process for industry, an efficiency in capital/operational expenditure and provide the social benefits anticipated by the accessibility projects/programmes. Conclusion and Policy Implications: This study suggests addressing the issue of inaccessibility on a network through a new strategy and programme of work that switches from focusing on reviewing the capital savings and journey benefits provided to individual stations when accessibility measures are provided, into reviewing the impacts on the rest of the network within its decision and funding processes. This can be achieved through the use of the new assessment tool developed in this study.