Safety and Comfort: Wheelchair Users in Urban Public Transportation

This paper describes how it is important to increase knowledge of wheelchairs as seats in urban public transport vehicles. The paper concludes four different studies, approaching the perspective of wheelchair-seated passengers – survey, participant observation, experimental and focus group discussion. Perceived safety and comfort are main themes. A high or very high general level of perceived safety and comfort – the “inside” level – is revealed. On the other hand, however, the objective “outside” expert-viewed safety level is regarded as unsatisfactory; the wheelchair tie-down systems and safety belts are seldom used as intended. Background experience, reference frames, personal need for enhanced control and communication are seen as influential in the process of assessing safety and comfort. The dimensions of perceived safety and comfort be at least threefold: technically (analytically and objectively assessed), socially (experientially and subjectively assessed) and discursive (affected by context and language). The results indicate that the implementation of existing transport policies, technical regulations as well as new technologies needs to be examined from a user’s perspective. Further work will have to consider the multiple meanings of safety and comfort. Methodologically, it is argued that the triangulation of methods shows the diverse possibilities of approaching and categorizing perceived safety and comfort.