Issue
For people with disabilities, getting around the Chicago region can be difficult. An uncoordinated patchwork of accessible transportation services, missing sidewalks, and poor information force individuals to minimize travel, rely on friends and family, or resort to expensive private providers.
Solutions
Mobility is a human right. Regardless of age or ability, access to high-quality accessible transportation is fundamental to exercising that right. That's why MPC worked with policy experts, service providers, advocates, and paratransit users to create a vision for a better system. The result, "Toward Universal Mobility: Charting a Path to Improve Transportation Accessibility," is a groundbreaking report that includes 32 policy recommendations designed to unlock opportunities for older adults and people with disabilities. Chief among them: create a regional mobility coordinator that can work across jurisdictions and break down bureaucratic silos to provide better and more consistent service across the region.
Read the full report here
Benefits
With the right partners and enough political will, we can make lasting change for people with disabilities in Chicagoland. We envision a future where wait times aren’t dramatically different for wheelchair users, where wayfinding tools include braille and audible cues, where confusing and arbitrary service boundaries don't make everyday trips impossible... where we can all go where we need to go safely, quickly and comfortably.