Wheelchair users and public transit: Eliciting ascriptions of comfort and safety

Abstract

Transport policies often contain explicit goals for the travel quality of disabled passenger groups. Addressing the user perspective, focus group discussions with wheelchair-seated passengers (using bus transit and Special Transportation Services) were therefore held, in order to qualitatively explore perceived comfort and safety – two important quality factors. The comfort and safety constructs were shown to refer to technical (vehicle technology and systems design) as well as social aspects (trust, predictability, communication), and the construct meanings were intertwined. The emerging dualism of the constructs is important to consider, particularly since the social aspects were stressed as being travel quality prerequisites. Methodologically, the focus group method proved useful, and the use of in-vivo impressions could serve as valuable input into quantitative research or evaluations.