Universal Accessibility Index: A Pedestrian Centered Accessibility to Inclusive Transport System

With rising congestion, increased pollution, and decreasing available space per person in urban areas made us to think about the adopting new methods to improve the infrastructure conditions. In a country like India, where efforts are being made in the upliftment of the transportation sector with the introduction of new policy, planning and design tools. City administrations so far overlooked one of the basic and most essential elements of the transportation eco-system i.e., the availability of respectable and walkable pedestrian infrastructure. In addition, accessibility for all the pedestrian groups to such facilities is also a major concern. This research paper aims to study and develop the concept of Universal Accessibility Index which is essentially evaluate the suitability of pedestrian facilities available in city for all types of pedestrian groups including disable. Based on the extensive literature study and observations, a robust, reliable and repetitive universal accessibility index is proposed. A public transit area was chosen as the case to study the user\x92s perception regarding accessibility and facilities available for pedestrians. A weighted average model was developed to rate the level of accessibility for the location. From the analysis, it is observed that the railway station area had an accessibility deficit. From the results it is inferred that low level of accessibility is associated with less participation of people especially, elderly, women and differently abled people. Finally, recommendations were suggested for the study location based on the concept of universal design. It is believed that the proposed methodology and finding from this study will be useful for transportation planners and practitioners to evaluate the level of accessibility and ways to improve pedestrian facilities for all user groups.