Mobility for All in Asia 2

The presentation will cover various initiatives by Land Transport Authority, Singapore to provide a cost-effective land transport system for different needs, to achieve the vision of a people-centred land transport system. The initiatives cover the planning and design strategies of barrier-free accessibility, connectivity and integration in transport and commuter facilities to enable all commuters to have seamless journey between destinations. The transport and commuter facilities comprise MRT stations, bus interchanges, bus and taxi shelters, pedestrian overhead bridges, underpasses and covered linkways. These initiatives are part of the strategic thrusts of making public transport a choice mode, optimise road network and enhance its accessibility, and excelling in service quality.

As an oncoming aging society, people in Taiwan realize that to form a universal environment for everyone is a very important issue. The major problem in shifting from Barrier Free (BF) to Universal Design (UD) environment within the context of "aging at place" is to integrate old city frames with new user-friendly interfaces. In addition, connections among different hierarchical authorities such as building and transportation management committee need to be closely coordinated.

In this report, various mobility topics of applying UD principles to major transportation systems, such as bus, subway, railway, and Taiwan High Speed Rail stations, walkways and crossings, arcades, park paths have been extensively case-examined and analyzed by Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE). In order to encourage senior and handicapped people to join the social society actively, mobility environments in public corners in Taiwan need to be improved with more user-friendly interfaces. For example, we need more handicapped-friendly buses, pedestrian-friendly streets, convenient conveying systems in most bus and train stations, and developing intelligent technology on building and transit systems. In order to provide everyone equitable mobility rights in traffic environment, apparently, we need great efforts to reach the goal "mobility for all in Taiwan".