Title

AMELIA: making streets more accessible for people with mobility difficulties

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2008

Subject Area

Infrastructure - Kerb ramp, Location - UK, Mobility - Accessibility (Disability), Mobility - Mobility mapping, Social Issues - social inclusion

Abstract

Streets can be made more liveable by ensuring that they are accessible to everyone. This requires the identification of ways to overcome the barriers to access for those who are socially excluded. In order to address these issues, a software tool, AMELIA (A Methodology for Enhancing Life by Increasing Accessibility) is being developed to test the extent to which transport policies can increase social inclusion. This is part of a research project being carried out as part of a large programme looking at ‘Accessibility and User Needs in Transport in a Sustainable Urban Environment’ (AUNT SUE). AMELIA will be used to investigate how many more people are able to reach various opportunities including shops, medical and welfare centres, employment and leisure facilities. It will be used to establish how many people meet accessibility benchmarks defined elsewhere in the project with and without the policy intervention. Micro-level data based upon street audits has been collected for the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, including details such as steps, slopes, access to individual buildings and obstructions on the pavement. In the paper, the effect of removing barriers to movement on the street are discussed because, by doing so, streets can be made more liveable.