Check out the Mobility Divide Index by the TRIPS project and provide your feedback!
The EU-funded project TRIPS is designing a tool to assess the inclusivity of transport services, the Mobility Divide Index (MDI).
A growing number of EU-funded projects is currently looking at the impacts of the rapid proliferation of innovative mobility services (such as automated vehicles, artificial intelligence, and Mobility-as-a-Service) on urban transport systems. The aim of these projects is to ensure that the ultimate objective of mobility services based on digital technologies, is to better serve the needs of all transport users, with particular attention to the vulnerable groups, such as seniors and people with physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment.
TRIPS (TRansport Innovation for vulnerable-to-exclusion People needs Satisfaction) is one these projects; its main goal is to design practical steps to empower people with disabilities to play a central role in the design of inclusive digital mobility solutions.
In the first year of its duration, the project designed a new tool to assess the level of accessibility of urban transport services, the so-called Mobility Divide Index (MDI). It aims at measuring the perceived accessibility gap that disabled users must overcome to use local transport solutions in the same ways non-disabled citizens can. Starting from April 2021, the tool will be applied in the seven TRIPS pilot sites, both in order to rate the accessibility of the current local transport systems and to evaluate the impact of the inclusive digital mobility interventions that TRIPS will introduce in the cities.
In the meantime, TRIPS is engaging local disabilities organisations in cities across Europe to take part in two surveys, the MDI Weighting Survey and the Mobility Survey, aiming to finetune the index through the input of vulnerable transport groups on their daily travel experience.
If you wish to contribute to the co-design of the Mobility Divide Index, take part in these two surveys, available in several languages.
And for more information on the TRIPS project, please contact the project's Deputy Coordinator Tally Hatzakis (Trilateral Research).
