Standards for usable and safe environments for sight impaired

When revising national standards and guidelines facilitating for sight-impaired people in transport systems, Norwegian authorities needed an assessment of current standards and practices. Two issues concerning design of streetscapes and public transport stops were of particular concern for the authorities: tactile paving seems to be laid out in situations in which more thoughtful design with natural leading elements could better have ensured usability, accessibility and safety for sight impaired; and there is a lack of consistency where tactile paving is laid out, causing potentially dangerous situations. The aim of this paper is to discuss how and why qualities of standards and guidelines, as well as of current practices, contribute to planning and design processes producing such results, and furthermore to arrive at recommendations for improving the situation.acceptedVersio

Universal Design as a Way of Thinking About Mobility

The concept of universal design in reference to a strategy to counter social exclusion was first coined by the architect Ronald Mace. He defined Universal design (UD) as “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”. This paper will look into the use of UD as a policy objective for transport policy, using Norwegian experience as an example. UD was adopted as one of the four major policy objectives in Norwegian transport policy in 2009. However, from 2018 onwards UD is no longer a main policy objective. This experience with UD as a policy objective is used as an empirical backdrop for a more principal discussion on the usefulness of UD in transport and mobility. I conclude by pointing at UD as a useful vision, but difficult policy objective

Silos as barriers to public sector climate adaptation and preparedness: insights from road closures in Norway

Organisational perspectives propose that structural arrangements affect policy outcomes. Drawing on these perspectives, it is worthwhile to find out whether and how disagreements among public authorities create barriers to public sector adaptation and preparedness. As the literature on weather vulnerabilities and climate adaptation recommends increased public sector coordination, exploring the possibilities of governance can contribute to the improvement of lifeline conditions. Insights from a Norwegian case study suggest that the different mandates of responsible public authorities sometimes clash. Such clashes limit the abilities to sustain welfare and business conditions when avalanches and blizzards cause highway outages. The findings also show that governance might only partly improve public sector peril response measures, as there is rarely sufficient flexibility to consider specific interests or preferences, for example, to keep a highway open until a school bus or a freight delivery has passed