Mai Almén’s research while affiliated with GRÄNGES SWEDEN AB and other places

This paper is an attempt to advance research on walking at a neighborhood level of analysis for people with disabilities by proposing a theoretical model that combines the knowledge of two disciplines: traffic planning and environmental psychology. The aim is to provide guidance for a discussion and a plan for future interdisciplinary investigations by proposing a model that accounts for the dynamic interaction between environmental characteristics, human processes, and walking experience among individuals with a disability. For this purpose, traffic planners, and environmental psychologists came together to discuss theories, concepts, and thematic relevance in a series of focus group meetings. These meetings led to the selection of the Human Environment Interaction (HEI) model, originally developed from the field of environmental psychology and operationalized to describe how walking experiences result from the interplay between individual abilities, emotional processes, and the physical and social characteristics of the environment (Küller, 1991). The proposed model aims to sustain interdisciplinary discussion and research planning around the topic of neighborhood walking for people with disabilities. By operationalizing each dimension in the model, a good fit between groups with disabilities and individual differences associated with walking experiences is assumed, which, in turn, will have the potential to provide a more conscious analysis of wellbeing-related outcomes, such as usability of the environment, frequency of mobility, and quality of life. However, to improve understanding of urban walking at a neighborhood level for people with disabilities, empirical studies must be carried out to test the proposed model.

Walking is an important transport mode for sustainable cities, but the usability of pedestrian environments for people with impaired vision is very limited after dark. This study compares the usability of a walkway, operationalized in terms of (i) the pedestrian’s ability to orient themselves and detect infrastructure elements, and (ii) the perceived quality of lighting in the environment (evaluated in terms of the perceived strength quality and perceived comfort quality). The study was performed in a city in southern Sweden, along a pedestrian route where observations and structured interviews had previously been conducted and after an intervention involving installing new lighting systems with LED lights. A mixed method analysis involving participants with impaired vision (N=14) showed that the intervention generally improved the walkway’s usability: observations indicated that the participants’ ability to orientate themselves and detect infrastructure elements increased, and the interviews showed that the intervention increased the perceived strength quality of the lighting along the walkway. However, the effects on the perceived comfort quality were unclear. It is therefore important to carefully evaluate new lighting systems to reduce the risk of creating an inappropriate lighting design that will limit walking after dark by people with impaired vision.

When talking about people with handicaps, children, bulk luggage, etc in transportation they are referred to as “Persons with Reduced Mobility”, a term that is commonly in use within the European legislation. The term disability is a broad one. It includes people with physical, sensory or mental impairment. At a conservative estimate between 12 and 13 per cent of the population have some degree of impairment. Many, though not all, face barriers to movement in the environment.

The overall purpose was to study whether and how persons with blindness detect warning surfaces with a long white cane in a real pedestrian environment after following a natural guidance surface to the warning surfaces. Of particular interest was the importance of kerb, depth, and structure of the warning surfaces. A concurrently mixed methods approach, with a combination of observation using a structured form together with 'think aloud' and a structured interview, was used. It was done with well-defined samples and study sites in an inter-disciplinary research context. The results show that the most important design characteristic for detection of the warning surfaces with a white cane is the structure of the surface, while the depth of the surface and availability of a kerb do not have any impact on the detection. A precondition was that there is a distinct natural guidance surface leading up to the warning surface. The probability among pedestrians with blindness to detect a tactile surface is not higher if the design solution has a kerb. This study also confirms the complexity of being a blind pedestrian in the traffic environment. The results can be used for evidence-based physical planning. The study also has implications for development of more efficient vision rehabilitation.