A user-centric dashboard for auditing the inclusiveness of urban mobility around Europe
A CITY CANNOT BE INCLUSIVE UNLESS IT FEELS INCLUSIVE
A set of user-derived metrics enables us to audit the inclusiveness of urban and transport infrastructure from user perspective based on dimensions that matter to vulnerable citizens – like comfort, convenience, time, affordability, safety and autonomy. Metrics cover all aspects of travelling from planning one’s journey to making it to one’s destination and everything in between, like travelling to a station or stop; buying a ticket; identifying the correct service, boarding a transport means; the journey itself; and off-boarding. The European Accessibility Observatory collates and visualises such detailed user feedback in ways that can be actionable for planning, running and managing urban mobility.
THE MOBILE DIVIDE INDEX FRAMEWORK
A key component underpinning the European Accessibility Observatory is the Mobility Divide Index (MDI), a set of metrics for auditing the inclusiveness of urban and transport infrastructure. The metrics are user-derived through an iterative, co-design process where persons of disabilities brainstormed, clustered and weighted the importance of various factors affecting every aspect of their end-to-end journey. Metrics drill into the factors affecting the inclusivity of urban and transport infrastructure and services, as well as all related information and support that goes with them. See above an example of the safety dimension and its factors. These are weighted based on users’ preferences and then synthesised into an over index of end-to-end journey inclusiveness accounting for multimodal evaluations.
THE PUBLIC DASHBOARD
Another key component underpinning the European Accessibility Observatory is an accessible mobile app, that translates the MD metrics into a tool for auditing the inclusiveness of urban mobility on the go! The app is fully accessible and can be used by everyone including individuals with hearing or visual impairments. At the back end, data analytics algorithms collate and analyse data in aggregate, as well as per mode and type of disability to generate insights for strategy development, investment and policy making. The app also allows users to take and upload pictures from their journey, describe their barriers and offer recommendations. The app can be downloaded from the app store: <>
Between October – December 2022, the app will be piloted in 4 EU cities – Bologna, Cagliari, Lisbon, and Zagreb. User feedback will be analysed for an update of the app in its January 2023 release. Guidelines for the adoption of the app by cities and pilot case study
reflections will be found on the TRIPS project website: www.trips-project.eu
THE PUBLIC DASHBOARD
The final and most important component of the European Accessibility Observatory is the public dashboard, a traffic light visualisation of data analytics and allow that flags issues with urban mobility inclusiveness, allows those with responsibility for urban mobility to set evidence-based priorities, and make decisions that will cater for user needs and maximise the impact of public investment in improving people’s lives and making cities a great place to live. Users with access to the dashboard will be able to mash information in different ways to facilitate decision making. For example, information can be visualised by transport mode to cater for the interests of transport operators or by disability to understand what the gaps of urban mobility ecosystem needs to cater for. We envision however the need for an accessibility role at a city level that will coordinates inclusive mobility actions and interventions across modes and urban planning and infrastructure management to ensure integrative management of inclusive mobility.
For more information or a demonstrator please contact: c.repetto@tbirdge.com