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The National Academies

TCRP J-11/Task 42 [Completed]

Transportation for People with Disabilities and Older Adults during COVID-19: Lessons for Emergency Response

  Project Data
Funds: $100,000
Research Agency: TTI
Principal Investigator: Todd Hansen
Effective Date: 12/1/2021
Completion Date: 9/1/2023

BACKGROUND
 
Transportation services for people with disabilities and older adults are provided, in most communities, by a complex, and often fragile, agglomeration of public, private, and non-profit fixed-route, paratransit, and demand-responsive services that are essential to the well-being of their customers.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of being prepared and nimble to serve people with disabilities and older adults was evident. 
 
While facing many challenges, numerous transportation providers that serve people with disabilities and older adults demonstrated laudable responses to the pandemic and other emergencies they faced, while others struggled to adapt.   The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of enhancing resilience and assuring that community-wide mobility and other critical needs are met during emergencies. Given this, research is needed to help ensure that the positive and negative lessons learned regarding transportation services for people with disabilities and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic are documented and understood.
 
 

OBJECTIVE


The objective of this research is to present strategies for public transportation agencies, paratransit providers, human service transportation providers, emergency planners, and their partners to prepare for and be ready to operate transportation services for people with disabilities and older adults during major service disruptions such as a pandemic, natural disasters, and other emergencies. This research should draw on the lessons learned from diverse communities during the COVID-19 pandemic; provide examples of successful strategies; and present implementation methods that can be emulated.  
 

STATUS:  The research is is complete.  The publication will be released fall 2023 as a pre-publication and after editing, as a final TCRP report in 2024.

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