Accessibility to people with disabilities and people with reduced mobility is set on the agenda of several international institutions such as ECMT,the UN, the Council of Europe and the European Union. Numerous European countries have released national legislations. In 2002 the former Presidentof the French Republic decided to enhance the French policy in favour of people with disabilities made in 1975. The French Ministry of Transport granted INRETS to analyse and clarify the social, administrative, legal and technical mechanisms which contribute (in a positive or a negative way) tothe full accessibility of the travel chain. Two local accessibility policies were studied in 2004 to 2007: those of Lyon (in France) and of Stuttgart (in Germany). Both Lyon and Stuttgart are European urban areas where various technological solutions are implemented (buses, light rail systems, subways, suburban coaches, regional railway system). The research materials stem from complementary sources, namely from legal and administrative texts which define national or local policies, from semi-structured interviews of local policy makers and operators and from direct observations. The observations and analysis showed that both in Lyon and in Stuttgart the accessibility public problem has been set of the institutional agenda of thetransport authorities. The examination of the situations of Lyon and Stuttgart highlights differences between the two transport networks but also similarities. Accessibility can be thought as a public problem under the influence of various requirements and constraints. While Germany has enforced several laws to have a transport system accessible to people with disabilities, in France the law led the French policy to distinguish two different population categories and two accessibility solutions. The accessibility requirements were specified by standards and technical recommendations in France and by regulations in Germany. These instruments do not put the same pressure on local policy makers and on transport operators. Fiscal andeconomic instruments were also studied. The current options of local policy makers are often restricted by past decisions. Local Stuttgart policy makers decided to couple high-floor vehicles of Stadtbahn with high-level platforms (900-mm-height). In Lyon, the transport authority has difficulties in adapting its underground since it decided that wheelchair users were not welcome in 1970s. A decision making process under the supervision of people with disabilities. Both in Lyon and Stuttgart associations of/for people with disabilities are consulted by transport authorities. However clusters of associations of/for people with disabilities do not co-make localpolicies with transport authorities. The technical solutions implemented in Lyon and Stuttgart to help wheelchair users to board the bus, i.e. electric ramps and manual ramps respectively, underpin a differing meaning of accessibility: a public problem versus a collective problem. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999
Abstract