Paving the Way for Inclusion: Addressing Gaps in Measuring Disability within Transportation Data Systems

In 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 44 million Americans lived with some form of disability, including visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities. The current methods for collecting mobility data on people with disabilities are inadequate for planning and delivering inclusive and equitable mobility options. The public transportation industry needs to be able to access usable and shareable data that accounts for diversity across multiple dimensions of disability. There are three primary limitations in identifying people with disabilities and their travel experiences and preferences using current national and local datasets: Characteristics: lack of measurement reflecting diverse types of disability. The exclusion of metrics accounting for the diversity in the disability community leads to a critical gap in transportation’s ability to make informed, data-driven decisions. Environment: lack of data on the intersection between environment and travel behavior. Environmental barriers, policies, and resources impact mobility for individuals with disabilities. The industry lacks this information in consistent and shareable formats. Methods: lack of alignment between research questions, survey designs, and data needs. Current research methods present numerous challenges for understanding the disability experience, for example, measuring only trips taken, focusing on paratransit trips, or limiting data collection to a cross-sectional research design. The objective of this research is to develop a guide for designing and implementing national and local data collection systems that accurately measure the travel experiences of people with disabilities. The outcome of this research will enable the transportation industry to collect and use this data to improve service provision and mobility options for people with disabilities.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5610
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Funding: $300000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project B-54

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Transit Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Schoby, Jamaal

• Start Date: 20240813
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Data collection; Persons with disabilities; Public transit; Transportation equity
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01902055
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project B-54
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 13 2023 12:03PM