Citation

Schmocker JD. J. Transp. Land Use 2009; 2(2): 1-2.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, The author(s), Publisher University of Minnesota, Center for Transportation Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article serves as the introduction to the second part in a special series on access to transportation options. This section focuses on the planning implications and reviews how far accessibility planning has been employed in practice. The first entry is a letter that describes experiences with accessibility planning in French towns, illustrating experiences and problems associated with a recent law that requires municipalities to improve accessibility. The remaining articles in this issue cover topics including the findings of a survey of Swedish municipalities on the perception of the importance of accessibility issues as well as whether policies and guidelines are actually being implemented; how existing guidelines often fail to address the real needs of those with impairments; an alternative approach tested in the United Kingdom to measure the extent of social exclusion experienced by people with mobility impairments, particularly older people; the problem of project evaluation, as transport planners and advocates must justify investments; the mobility effects of improvements to the public transport system in Sweden; and the measurable benefits of more accessible transport, including the idea that better access to transport facilities is appreciated by a wider community than generally considered and often leads to positive net present values for infrastructure improvements. The author stresses that the access to a destination is only as good as the lowest level of access to any infrastructure on any path to this destination - one broken link may prevent the entire journey from being undertaken.