The new research project aims to provide a deeper understanding of potential obstacles and conditions in public transport for people with special needs. Another aim is to identify measures that can support a more sustainable and accessible public transport system. The project is financed and operated within the framework of K2 - Sweden's national center for research and education on public transport. The project has grown out of a previously smaller K2-funded project (between 2020–2022). Many working meetings and dialogues are the basis for the design of the project, and involve around ten representatives from the industry and the majority of interest organisations. Continued collaboration is one of the project's cornerstones.
Public transport for everyone
Vanessa Stjernborg from LTH, Lund University of Technology, is the project manager.
- Today, the work to create public transport for everyone is lagging and our hope is that the results from the project can help in this process. Through the project's close collaborations, we hope to be able to contribute knowledge that can be the basis for further developing of accessibility within public transport, she says.
Digital solutions for better and for worse
Central to the project is also highlighting questions about challenges and opportunities with new digital solutions in public transport. There is currently limited knowledge about this and the research project has the potential to be highly relevant to practice. It can be about making visible shortcomings in creating accessible solutions, proposals for measures for a more accessible digital technology or designing a basis that can be used in education both within the industry and academia.
Why does this need to be explored (right now)?
- In the Global goals for sustainable development, which are part of the 2030 agenda and adopted by the UN, the importance of an accessible and sustainable public transport system for all citizens is emphasized, with special attention to the needs of people in vulnerable situations. Public transport is often considered to be particularly important for people with special needs, as they may have limited access to other means of transport.
In what way is the project linked to the CASE research environment?
- Ever since the start of CASE, various researchers have collaborated on questions regarding special needs, public transport and outdoor mobility. As the projects have been implemented and partially completed, perhaps these questions have tended to fall a little by the wayside. That's why it's great that a CASE researcher - Eva Månsson Lexell - is now a co-applicant for a project that received funding via K2, says Vanessa Stjernborg.
The main applicant is Vanessa Stjernborg at The Faculty of Engineering, Lund University and the other co-applicants are Kristofer Hansson, Malmö University, Eva Månsson Lexell from CASE, Lund University and Lena Levin, VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute).