Disabled people are excluded from London planning systems
Cat Whitehouse
Head of Communications and EngagementLondon should be open to everyone, but new research from Transport for All reveals London's outdated planning system excludes the city's 1.2 million disabled people.
About the research
Transport for All's latest research discovered that the calculations dictating locations for housing and shopping developments in London fail to include accessibility, leaving the city's 1.2 million disabled residents out of the picture.
We have worked with disabled people who live and work in the city to create three measures that can be added to the system to begin including our community in planning.
We are calling for Transport for London to adopt the accessibility measures whilst it undertakes a comprehensive review of the system with disabled people.
What can improve accessibility?
Current planning systems measure accessibility by the distance to the nearest station or bus stop, how often services stop there, how many services stop there, and how far the area is from a big train station.
This doesn’t include many things that matter to disabled people – we face a range of barriers when accessing public transport.
Our research, ‘The Accessibility Review of The PTAL Index’ was produced with disabled people who live and travel in London. It identified three key issues that can be addressed to drastically improve the accessibility of an area:
Disabled people taking part in the research said that overcrowding creates stress and anxiety, for example Kings Cross can be busy and loud and people move with urgency.
Transport for All research shows this can be a barrier for many disabled people, including neurodivergent people, people with some mental health conditions who may feel overwhelmed, people with energy limiting impairments who may be blocked from rest areas, wheelchair users, and people navigating by cane or with assistance dogs who may be unable to move around safely, or be disorientated.
Participants said that step-free access was one of the most useful measures of accessibility as it helps many people eg wheelchair users, people with buggies, people with luggage.
Transport for London has many different definitions of ‘step free’, they are based on the gap between the platform and the train, the height of the step between the train and the platform, and whether the station has lifts. Disabled people said that a clearer definition is needed.
Participants said that toilet facilities are essential to some disabled people. These are often not available, but where they are present they are often out of order, or locked.
A lack of toilets is a barrier to travel for people with bowel and bladder conditions. Measuring where toilets are, and including this in accessibility, can help.
Why should Transport for London act now?
All three issues listed in the report are already measured. Adding them to planning calculations is simple, and can be done quickly to enable a range of disabled people to travel and live well in new development, creating a city we can all enjoy.
That is why we are asking for Transport for London to add overcrowding, step free access, and toilets to planning calculations immediately, but also commission more research with disabled people on this issue.
The findings represent a baseline for beginning to include disabled people in city planning. Many other issues that participants said are important to our community are currently not measured, and so cannot be calculated in planning. These include:
Pavements can aid or prevent people from being able to access an area. Poor quality pavements, pavements without ‘dropped kerbs’ and pavements littered with street furniture and advertising signs can be dangerous or prevent travel for disabled people using mobility aids, visually impaired people, and anybody with an impairment affecting their balance.
Disabled research participants wanted pavement quality, road surfaces, and obstructions in areas around stations to be included in accessibility measures.
Positive and inclusive staff attitudes give disabled people confidence that we can travel easily and get assistance if we need it, but poor or thoughtless attitudes can present a barrier.
For example research participants said that bus drivers pulling in behind one another rather than coming directly to the stop prevent visually impaired people being able to use the bus. Similarly, pulling off before passengers are seated is dangerous for many disabled people with mobility or balance impairments.
Whilst it is hard to record data about staff attitudes, knowing that staff are trained to consider accessibility in their work would enable more disabled people to travel confidently.
Participants said that long distances between ticket barriers and the platform, or long interchanges between different lines can be a barrier that stops people with energy limiting impairments being able to travel, especially if there is no information about rest areas.
Including this information in calculations would mean more people can travel easily.
Our project partners
We would like to thank our project partners and funders for their amazing support.
The report was funded by Motability Foundation and supported by researchers at Revealing Reality and Frontier Economics, who produced the report for us.
