How do perceptions of transportation challenges influence travel behavior for people with disabilities?

Although it has been over thirty years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted, people with disabilities—who represent approximately one-quarter of the U.S. population—continue to face significant barriers to mobility and access. They tend to make fewer trips and are more reliant on others, largely due to shortcomings in pedestrian infrastructure, transit, and for-hire vehicle services, and specialized paratransit options, as well as the negative attitude of drivers to them. While substantial research has documented the wide range of mobility and access challenges faced by people with disabilities, there has been limited investigation into how these challenges affect their mode choice decisions. This project will develop and administer a web-based survey, targeting a sample of California residents with disabilities, to explore how disability shapes mode choice, factoring in perceptions of the inaccessibility of transportation infrastructure, mode design-induced challenges, and ableism faced while travelling by different modes. This project will explore how these problems influence their willingness to use paratransit and trip frequency to activity centers. The research team will apply various analytical techniques, including descriptive statistics, basic comparative statistical tests, and multinomial logistic regression, to address the research questions. To ensure the survey is relevant and impactful, the team will collaborate with organizations serving people with disabilities, both to inform the survey design and to disseminate findings that support broader universal access goals shared by these organizations and public agencies.

• Record URL:
  • https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/how-do-perceptions-transportation-challenges-influence-travel-behavior-people-disabilities

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $20,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DOT 69A3552348319

  DOT 69A3552344814

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Cliff, Sydney

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Bhuiya, Md

• Start Date: 20260101
• Expected Completion Date: 20261231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Mobility; Mode choice; Persons with disabilities; Surveys; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01989189
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: DOT 69A3552348319, DOT 69A3552344814
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: May 14 2026 4:54PM