Page 24 - Mobility Management, March 2019

Technology Series
Smart Cities, Accessible Cities?
The Problem
with Mobility Technology Innovation in both private and public transportation is integral to smart city visions, and electric autonomous vehi- cles are included in plans for urban transportation overhauls. In addition to cutting down on fuel emissions and traffic collisions, autonomous vehicles are often viewed as an unqualified good for people with disabilities, providing mobility solutions for wheelchair users, the blind community and seniors. Do a basic Internet search on autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars, and you’ll see that most people think this sophisticated technology benefits people with disabilities.
Auto manufacturers, tech companies and members of Congress responsible for setting regulations for this sophisticated technology attest to its advantages for people with disabilities. But when Amy Schoppman, Director of Government Relations for the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA), hears people say that autonomous vehicles promise to revolutionize transportation for people with disabilities, she said, “I nod my head and smile, and I say, ‘How?’ And there is no answer.”
Schoppman has been working with Congress, federal agencies and various stakeholders in accessible transportation to help them understand the specific automotive mobility needs of people with disabilities before autonomous vehicles are deployed en masse to the streets. “We do all of that because people with disabil- ities and seniors with limited mobility
are consistently identified as the obvious beneficiaries of autonomous vehicle tech- nology,” Schoppman said.
“It’s often been stated in Congressional hearings and op-eds and agency press releases — nearly anything — that this transportation revolution is coming and is going to be a total game-changer for these specific populations who really deserve
to have more options for public or private transportation. It sounds great from a political and social perspective. Who’s going to disagree that autonomous vehicles hold promise for people with disabilities?
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Because absolutely, they do. But part of what NMEDA is working towards is ensuring that these populations aren’t being exploited for PR purposes and that autonomous vehicle developers have a real intention and are using accurate information to make these systems accessible and safe.”
Autonomous vehicles can in theory provide mobility solutions for people
with disabilities; the problem is that in implementation, they don’t because the very design and structure of autonomous vehicles do not account for the needs of this population. Existing autonomous vehicles suggest they are built with able-bodied people in mind. For wheelchair users to be able to use this technology, developers must consider the frame of the vehicle, the design and structure, and the interior space.
For example, autonomous cars are
electric because they lend themselves
more naturally to the computer software required to make them autonomous, and electric cars, even without self-driving features, cannot accommodate wheelchairs. Schoppman explained that in an electric car, the large and heavy battery is in the floor of the car, not the hood, so the floor can’t be cut out, lowered and replaced to accommodate a wheelchair. “The battery is not something that is like a little siren that you can put on top of the vehicle or just move it someplace else. Right now, that’s where they are,” Schoppman said.
Even if the design of the vehicle itself was built to accommodate a wheelchair, use of these vehicles in public transporta- tion, ride sharing and on-demand services like that of Lyft and Uber bring even
more questions. Public transportation is
By the Numbers: Statistics on Disability & Cities
• Pew Research Center reports that nearly 40 million Americans live with a disability.
• Mobility-related disabilities are the most common, representing 7.1 percent of the civilian non-institutionalized population.
• The U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research finds that more than 6.8 million community-resident Americans use assistive devices, such
as wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers, to help them with mobility.
• More than 25 percent of people living in U.S. cities are seniors or are living with
a disability. By 2050, Pew estimates that worldwide, at least one in seven people will be a city dweller with a disability.
• Data gathered by Smart Cities for All shows that 60 percent of global experts agree that smart cities are failing people with disabilities.
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