Experiences of demand responsive transport among vulnerable travellers - a handbook on need, demeanour, and interaction

Abstract

This research-based handbook provides an understanding about the experiences that vulnerable travellers have when they use demand responsive transport (DRT) modes. It deals with issues of importance when conducting this form of service: ways to interact with travellers, being sensitive to their needs and adapt to situations in the traffic environment. The handbook starts with a detailed description of the phases that a trip typically consists of and the different demands that needs to be accounted for. It details how important social structures are produced in interaction. Further, some concrete issues of driver-traveller interaction are discussed, followed by an identification of critical touchpoints during travel. It is argued that providers need to go beyond the mere managerial discourse on being ‘service-minded’, and pay more attention to the embodied, behavioural, multimodal and sequential aspects during training and education since these are important mechanisms for traveller and employee well-being. Travellers may be guided in how to more distinctively and actively use their own and the provider’s resources, e.g. knowledge, capabilities and equipment.The handbook also highlights general problems and challenges, having a user-perspective on the trip and suggests some solutions and opportunities that DRT-systems provide. The section discusses crucial aspects, such as service employee demeanour, traveller coping behaviour, and traveller misbehaviour. It is argued that transport providers should be aware of the principal forms of vulnerability, i.e. physical discomfort, commodification, and disorientation, which travellers may experience during traveller-driver interactions. Environmental designers may benefit from using this type of data on traveller behaviour, paying particular attention to the communication environment from a processual perspective. Marketing personnel in provider organizations could provide more accurate and timely information to travellers during, before, and after trips.Armed with a more profound knowledge of travellers’ real-time perceptions, transport operators might increase their ability to design more user-friendly services. This, in turn, could have a substantial impact in inducing travellers to switch from costly road-based special transport vehicles (such as various kinds of taxis for disabled travellers) to public transport. Travellers’ real-time perceptions could be an alternative starting-point for design of DRT-service—especially in integrating various responsible organisations. In the case of public transport there are many actors—including the operators of various transport modes (bus, train, and tram), the various transport authorities, different regional authorities, and various traveller representatives. All of these parties could use this kind of concrete visual information as a platform for a more profound dialogue that promotes a long-term, accessible, and sustainable service system.The handbook ends with some recommendations on how to develop methods for a better understanding of vulnerable travellers and how more specifically conduct group sessions where participants may analyse and develop co-designed future transport solutions. It is argued that transport provider awareness of the value co-formation activities in the practices described enables a more precise strategy for employee education and traveller involvement in the services. More service staff training in interactional techniques can thus be beneficial. Further, employee education could include discussions about general practices in services for functionally limited travellers and the delicate balance of assisting the traveller and letting the traveller decide how much assistance that is needed. The latter requires sensitivity to verbal and non-verbal cues that only can be picked up in the meeting with each traveller. All sections include suggestions for managerial implications.RESPONSE - Demand-Responsive Transport to ensure accessibility, availability and reliability of rural public transpor