Disability, Mode Perceptions, and Travel Behavior

Despite the more than three decades since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities, which comprise roughly one quarter of the US population, still face considerable challenges to their mobility and access. They make fewer trips and are more dependent on others because of deficiencies in pedestrian infrastructure, transit and for-hire vehicles, and specialized paratransit services. While there is a considerable amount of research that identifies the breadth of mobility challenges and access barriers, limited research has addressed how these mobility challenges influence mode choice for people with disabilities. This project will develop and administer a web-based survey by oversampling California residents with disabilities to understand how disability influences mode choice, accounting for perceptions of the built environment and mode-specific challenges. The research team anticipates using several analytical methods to answer the research questions, including descriptive statistics, basic statistical tests of comparison, and multinomial logistic regression. The research team aims to engage with disability-serving organizations to ensure that the survey reflects real concerns and will provide meaningful data, and to share results in support of universal access goals that the organizations and public agencies are pursuing.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.metrans.org/research/disability-mode-perceptions-and-travel-behavior

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $109,843.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A355174710

• Sponsor Organizations:

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Managing Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Hong, Jennifer

• Performing Organizations:

  Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089

  University of California Davis

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  ,    
• Principal Investigators:

  Barajas, Jesus

• Start Date: 20260101
• Expected Completion Date: 20270331
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Logistic regression analysis; Mode choice; Persons with disabilities; Surveys; Transportation equity; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01987037
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A355174710
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 23 2026 5:58PM