Complete barrier-free accessibility in road-based public transport

Expertise as a basis for updating the local transport plan

Accessibility to public transport for people in wheelchairs was promoted earlier in the region of today's ZVBN than anywhere else in Germany. The introduction of low-floor technology in buses and trams by Bremer Straßenbahn AG (BSAG) at the end of the 1980s was a model for other cities. The consistent equipping of city transport vehicles with lifts (‘Bremer Weg’) also contributed to extensive accessibility for passengers with wheelchairs. In the other cities and regions within the ZVBN's area of responsibility, the stops were equipped with a ramp as a vehicle-bound boarding aid for barrier-free use. When an amended Passenger Transport Act (PBefG) came into force in 2013, the ZVBN, like other public transport authorities, was obliged to take into account the needs of passengers with reduced mobility in the local transport plan with the aim of achieving complete accessibility. For practical implementation, new uniform standards had to be developed and, in particular, the residual step and residual gap in the vehicles had to be minimised as far as possible. The standards to be developed should continue to ensure the quality of accessibility of BSAG's road-based public transport vehicles for people in wheelchairs that has already been achieved through the ‘Bremer Weg’.

Together with the STUVA, the technical and operational framework conditions were first presented on the basis of applicable regulations and current development statuses and future standards for vehicles, stops and passenger information as well as framework conditions for possible exceptions to complete accessibility were described. The findings of a test stop on the BSAG premises, which was designed to enable level access to the vehicles, were also taken into account. In addition to technical improvements to door systems and boarding aids on buses and trams, proposals were developed for better passenger information with more easily perceptible fonts and font sizes, visual contrasts and colour schemes, as well as framework conditions for demand-responsive services such as scheduled taxis (ALT) and shared taxis (AST) and mobility-on-demand services that make sensible use of the new possibilities offered by digital media (smartphones with corresponding apps).

Die Vorschläge für die zukünftigen Standards wurden in einem umfassenden Beteiligungsverfahren in sechs Workshops mit allen relevanten Stakeholdern diskutiert. Die im Projekt zusammengetragenen und abgestimmten Einzelmaßnahmen wurden von der STUVA in einem umfangreichen Schlussbericht zusammengestellt. Sie dienen dem VBN als Grundlage für die Fortschreibung der Qualitätsanforderungen, welche wiederum die Grundlage für Ausschreibungen und Verkehrsverträge darstellen. In einem weiteren Schritt sollen die im Gutachten erarbeiteten Ergebnisse für die Fortschreibung des Nahverkehrsplans verwendet werden, um die vollständige Barrierefreiheit im ÖPNV im ZVBN nachhaltig zu verankern.

Schlussbericht und die Dokumentation des Beteiligungsprozesses sind unter www.zvbn.de/barrierefreiheit verfügbar.