Social service transport : transport for elderly and handicapped persons; held in Paris on 20th - 21st March 1980

138 Pages·1980·4.541 MB·English

by  OECD

ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
REPORT OF
THE FIFTY· FIRST ROUND TABLE
ON TRANSPORT ECONOMICS
Held in Paris on 20th-21st March, 1980
on the following topic :
"SOCIAL SERVICE, TRANSPORT :.
TRANSPORT FOR ELDERLY
AND HANDICAPPED PERSONS
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT
The European Coriference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) was insti
tuted by a Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th October 1953. It comprises the
Ministers of Transport of the following 19 countries: Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden. Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdom and Yugoslavia (associated countries: Australia, Canada, Japan,
United Sta(es).
The purposes of the ECMT are :
to take whatever measures may be necessary to achieve, at general or
regional level, the maximum use and most rational development of
European inland transport of international importance;
to co-ordinate and promote the activities of International Organisations
concerned with European inland transport (rail, road, navigable ways),
taking into account the work of supranational authorities in this field
PubliC en fran~ais sous le lilre:
LES TRANSPORTS SOCIAUX
PEASONNES AGEES ET HANOICAPEES
•
• •
© ECMT, 1980
ECMT publications are marketed by the Sale of Publications Department of the
OECD, 2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
A. Bieber 4
PART I - Mobility and the elderly
A. Hitchcock 7
PART II - Mobility and handicapped persons
B. Mettler-Meibom 23
PART III - Evolution of specific welfare services
C. Poulenat-Aballea ~•••••••••••ooooooooooooooooooooooooo 45
PART IV - From analysis to decision-making
A. Bieber 65
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION 91
(Round Table debate on the reports)
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 131
ECMT. ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
Forthcoming publications oo•••o•o••••o•·········••••o••o••135
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INTRODUCTION
Recognising the importance of the day-to-day problems that
the handicapped persons and the elderly have in getting about, many
authorities make a point of studying these difficulties and introduc
ing measures to alleviate them.
The subject is not easy to approach, and no clearly defined
philosophy is apparent at international or even national level.
There are several reasons for this. The real-life situations indi
cated by the words handicapped and elderly persons are very diverse,
the action taken at local, regional and national levels in this area
differs from one country to another and even the institutions them
selves that are responsible differ.
The purpose of this report is therefore essentially to present
a synthesis of the main facts in order to throw some light on this
diversity.
*
* *
Two preliminary points must be made. First, it must be re
membered that the report is more or less entirely concerned with
the mobility problems associated with elderly and handicapped
persons' daily lives. This limits the field of analysis to urban
and regional transport. In spite of their great interest, the pro
blems arising for intercity carriers are not referred to. It seemed
difficult to include these problems -which are very different and
could provide material for another round table on their own - in the
same study.
Secondly, the general intention in this introductory report is
to focus on the socio-economic problems presented by the transport
of the handicapped persons and the elderly. The rapporteurs are
well aware of the importance of technological research in this area
and the breadth of certain recent projects (such as the United
States scheme to make all buses "accessible" by means of technolog
ical aids even to severely disabled persons). But, in Europe, most
of the transport improvements made specifically for the handicapped
and the elderly have been based on "soft" types of innovation such
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as the organisation of services in new ways, assistance with fares
and so forth. We therefore felt it better to talk about what has
actually been done rather than about future plans and, on that
account, the socio-economic aspect has been given precedence.
*
* *
The report is in four parts written by four rapporteurs -
so as to give the necessary variety of approach, particularly from
the national standpoint - and co-ordinated by A. BIEBER as general
rapporteur.
Part I (rapporteur : A. HITCHCOCK, United Kingdom) takes
stock of what is known about the transport problems of the elderly
and the extent to which they have affected relevant decisions.
Part II (rapporteur : B. METTLER-MEIBOM, Federal Republic of
Germany) deals with the same subjects but with regard to the
handicapped persons. It also discusses the problem of compiling
statistics on the handicapped and on their transport difficulties.
Part III (rapporteur : C. POULENAT-ABALLEA, France) tells us
more about the historical evolution of the ways in which public aid
is given to the handicapped persons and the effect this has had
on the transport services that are provided in different countries.
Part IV (rapporteur : A. BIEBER, France) attempts to distil,
from all the available facts, the various aspects of a possible
methodological approach to these problems.
The report attempts therefore to expand on the conclusions of
the last ECMT report on this subject LCM(78)22_7 in three directions
finding out more about the social position of the elderly and the
handicapped, enquiring into what local action has been taken as
regards transport and proposing a general diagnostic method as a
preliminary to defining priority action for any given urban area.
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PART I
MOBILITY AND THE ELDERLY
A. HITCHCOCK
Transport and Road Research
Laboratory (TRRL)
CROWTHORNE
United Kingdom
SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION 9
2. WHO IS ELDERLY ? • o. o •••• o •••••••• o •••• o. o •• o. o • o •• o oo •• o 12
3. APPROACHES TO STUDY OF THE MOBILITY OF THE ELDERLY 13
4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELDERLY 15
5o ' THE OLD AS PATRONS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT o •••••••••••••• o • • 16
6. THE PERSPECTIVES OF NEED AND OF PERSONAL SPACE ••••o•oo•• 18
7. POLICY CONSIDERATIONS 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY 22
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1. INTRODUCTION
The very existence of ECMT Round Table 51 illustrates an
increasing concern on the part of many administrations that current
trends in transport provision are causing problems to several more
or less clearly identified social groups, among them people
variously described as "elderly" (French and United Kingdom),
"elderly and disabled" (United Kingdom), "elderly and handicapped"
(United States), "transportation handicapped" (United States).
Similar concerns are not new: French transport law has for 60 years
or more granted special privileges to war wounded, and mothers of
large families, for example, and Britain as well as France has long
given special treatment to the blind. The elderly, however, are a
far more numerous group, and the idea that they should receive
special privileges in transport is relatively new, and the
realisation, now widely accepted by research workers, that the
elderly are not a homogeneous group, so that different kinds of
action are appropriate for different sub-groups, is only just
beginning to penetrate the thinking of policy executives.
Old age and handicap can be - and are - variously defined, but
there is clearly an association between them. National studies in
the United Kingdom give different pictures of the extent of the
association between age and handicap, depending how the latter is
defined. Harris,(l) concerned with the ability of those with
impairment (i.e. physical disorder of a limb or other organ or
mental disorder), and defining handicap largely in terms of ability
to look after oneself, gives figures from which Table 1 has been
derived, but states that the sample may well not include many people
with impairments of kinds which could affect ability to drive or
walk longer distances. With this definition 30 per cent of those
with any impairment were over 65-74 and a further 29 per cent over
75. Hunt. (2) in a study of the elderly asked those not confined to
their beds or houses if they had a disability which interfered with
any activity, and produced Table 2.
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