Accessible Public Transportation: Designing Service for Riders with Disabilities

The United States is home to more than 54 million people with disabilities. This book looks at public transit and transportation systems with a focus on new and emerging needs for individuals with disabilities, including the elderly. The book covers the various technologies, policies, and programs that researchers and transportation stakeholders are exploring or putting into place. Examples of innovations are provided, with close attention to inclusive solutions that serve the needs of all transportation users.

Aaron Steinfeld is an Associate Research Professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon and the Co-Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation. He earned his PhD, MS, and BS in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and completed a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley. His interests focus on constrained user interfaces and operator assistance, predominantly in the realms of human-robot interaction, transportation, and intelligent systems.

Jordana L. Maisel is the Director of Research Activities at the IDeA Center at the University at Buffalo (UB), and an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning at UB. She earned her BS in Human Development from Cornell University, and her Masters of Urban Planning and PhD in industrial and systems engineering from UB. She currently serves as a Project Director in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Universal Design and the Built Environment, and a Project Co-Director in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation.

Edward Steinfeld is a State University of New York Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MArch and ArchD from the University of Michigan. He is the founding Director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA), a center of excellence in universal design. He is the Co-Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation, and the Director of the Rehabilitation Research Center on Universal Design and the Built Environment.