Sustainable Public Transport Service Adapted for People with Disabilities and Reduced Mobility in the Municipality of León, Guanajuato, Mexico

Fabiola Colmenero-Fonseca,Alejandro Guzmán-Ramírez,Mariana Flores-García,Carlos Daigoro Fonce-Segura

doi:10.3390/su13137471

Abstract

Urban mobility makes it possible to incorporate new perspectives that make it possible to question and problematize the way in which social links and relations between city dwellers are shaped. In this way, mobility constitutes an increasingly massive, recurrent, and complex social practice, strongly conditioned by the existing levels of inequality and particularly those that entail processes of social exclusion. In the present research, the efficiency of the modality of adapted public transportation for people with disabilities in the city of León, Guanajuato, Mexico, which came into operation in 2012, receiving the 2019 Building Equality Award from the International Center for the Promotion of Human Rights and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is analyzed. The management, design, and implementation of Inclusive Urban Transportation (TÜI), demonstrated how the articulation of actors (public, private, and civil society) are of vital importance for the success of the project. In this sense, it is important to count on the permanent participation of focus groups that identify and understand the real needs of users with reduced mobility. The results achieved allow establishing an evaluation that contributes to detect and mitigate the conditions of vulnerability, risk, and segregation of people with disabilities.

Highlights

Accessible and inclusive transportation is one of the main tools for the independence and social participation of people with disabilities, whether transitory or permanent
In some states of the Republic, universal accessibility has been considered as a right in their mobility law; but only in a few cities have specific actions been carried out in their rules or regulations that recognize the needs of different vulnerable groups, such as seats for people of small size and signage in Braille language and stop sound equipment; but in many cases these rules are not rigorously enforced, or in any case, the units that have this equipment are not representative in the universe of units circulating in a city
The TUI (Figure 7) Inclusive Urban Transportation model is made up of seven phases that have been gradually articulated in sequential order to mitigate the conditions of vulnerability associated with disability and public transportation, starting with the availability of resources, the regulatory framework, design of impact indicators, first approach, management, design and implementation of the TUI, as well as its monitoring for future challenges, which are shown in the following chart

Summary

Introduction

Accessible and inclusive transportation is one of the main tools for the independence and social participation of people with disabilities, whether transitory or permanent. According to [1] from the point of view of the individual, mobility makes at least three obvious contributions to a good quality of life for all citizens: (a) It offers possibilities to a wide range of family, social, cultural, educational, and occupational activities that would otherwise be closed; (b) It promotes mental and physical health, which in turn tends to improve the quality of life and prolong the length of life; (c) It enables people with reduced mobility to be more visible to the local community and promotes a favorable change in the perception of them towards society and of society towards them. In some states of the Republic, universal accessibility has been considered as a right in their mobility law; but only in a few cities have specific actions been carried out in their rules or regulations that recognize the needs of different vulnerable groups, such as seats for people of small size and signage in Braille language and stop sound equipment; but in many cases these rules are not rigorously enforced, or in any case, the units that have this equipment are not representative in the universe of units circulating in a city

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