Transportation (Research Project 5)
Disability, Aging, and Transportation Access (DATA)
Project Director: Clive D’Souza, Ph.D.
Access to safe, accessible and useable transportation options is vital to supporting social interactions, community participation, positive health behaviors, and successful aging among people with disabilities. However, community-level transportation decisions to promote health and community participation, and risk of secondary conditions among people aging with physical disabilities is undermined by the lack of evidence-based information. Data on ADA paratransit users and usage patterns is a valuable resource to this end but remains an under-utilized resource due to it being fragmented and inaccessible to decision-makers.
The specific aims of this project are:
- To quantify changes in transportation needs and priorities, and patterns of ADA paratransit use among people aging with long-term physical disabilities in a defined geographical area across time
- To incorporate this information into a prototype intervention, namely, a data-driven web-based decision tool for transportation service providers, city/county planners, and disability organizations to identify gaps in, and collectively improve and coordinate transportation services to support successful aging in people with long-term physical impairments
Disability, Aging, and Demand-Response Transportation tool
Disability, Aging and Demand Response Transportation Website Link:
https://www.includable.org/paratransit/index.php
Ann Arbor Paratransit Data Explorer Tool Link:
https://www.includable.org/paratransit/a2explorer/index.php
**The site is open access, but users need to signup (login and password). This this is at no-cost (free). Once users have created an account (or logged in), click on Projects and then Disability, Aging and Demand-Response Transportation. **