Transportation Update: Where We've Gone and What We've Learned

PURPOSE AND SCOPE:
Twenty-five years ago the Americans with Disabilities Act mandated a more accessible landscape for individuals with disabilities in this country, as well as a more accessible transit system to help them traverse that landscape. Fifteen years later, in 2005, the National Council on Disability published The Current State of Transportation For People With Disabilities in the United States, a major transportation overview report. That highly acclaimed report contributed to major developments in the field of transportation. In this report, Transportation Update: Where We’ve Gone and What We’ve Learned, NCD examines what has changed since the writing of our previous report. This update describes the last ten years’ numerous advances in the field of transportation for people with disabilities and recommends public policy to address new and persistent problems.

The focus of this report is surface transportation. The findings address accessibility-related progress as well as problems associated with fixed route and deviation bus and rail transit (including AMTRAK); paratransit; public right of way; enforcement of existing laws; and other issues for all modes of public transit. The report also addresses concerns with rural, coordinated, and privately funded transportation, and commercial driver license rules. Finally, the report makes recommendations to Congress and the Executive Branch designed to improve federal collaborative efforts and to close gaps in transportation access in ways which benefit people with disabilities and families.