
In September ncat was invited to give evidence to the London Assembly Transport Committee and Paul Herriotts spoke on behalf of ncat.
Also invited to speak were Emma Vogelmann, Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns from Transport for All, Dr David Crepaz-Keay, Head of Research and Applied Learning at the Mental Health Foundation, Eric Matthies, the Policy Officer for Inclusive Journeys and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, and Nick Tyler, Director at the UCL Centre for Transport Studies.
The London Assembly’s focus for the day was the state of transport accessibility within London. Among the questions discussed were: what the main barriers to accessibility are, and how these barriers affect how people travel. While the questions began with a focus on London, discussion broadened out to consider the barriers disabled people face when travelling around the rest of the country.
Herriotts identified that there are ‘pockets of excellence’ in some providers but that inconsistency across the whole transport system is what catches people out and create difficulties.
He also highlighted the fact that ‘every journey is multi-modal’ because it starts from the front doorstep. Those working in transport need to be asking broader questions if they are to get the full picture. Such as: can people get out of the door and onto the pavement? Are dropped kerbs in the right place? Are cars parked on the pavements? Have people put their bins back on their property, rather than leaving them as an obstacle on the pavement?
ncat has been conducting research in the areas of multi-modal transport and ‘streetscape’ barriers, and initial findings were discussed, along with other challenges, at our recent Summit.
We will be publishing our findings in the coming weeks on the ncat website.
To watch all the speakers from the Assembly follow this link.
Please see above for a clip of our input.