Developing a unified set of information covering accessibility at public transport terminals

There is a political wish in Europe to switch more passenger and freight transport from the use of individual cars to public transport methods. Travel planners, consisting of both static and dynamic information, are considered to be a means for encouraging or supporting this shift. An approach to assess the need for information covering the universal design (UD) of terminals and an approach to collect this information are described. The motivation for these studies is the on-going work in Norway to establish a national terminal register that provides basic information for travel planners. The idea of 'universal design' is gaining more and more attention in Norway and it is quickly becoming a politically interesting goal to design and develop the transport services according to guidelines for UD. Terminal accessibility varies greatly. If a disabled person plans a journey, information covering accessibility of the terminals involved in the possible journey is important. However, this type of information is of interest to many other groups of travellers too, for example, people with a baby carriage or with a lot of luggage. The work was done in close cooperation with representatives of all different types of user groups