Research on Status and countermeasure of Barrier - free in Rail Transportation in China - - - - behavior investigation of wheelchairs ’ users in nanjing metro

The author investigated the status of barrier-free facilities of urban rail transit station in China. Due to the physical factors, the senior and disability population fail to utilize urban traffic facilities, like ordinary persons. Also, children, women of pregnancy, and those who have mobility difficulties, and those who bear heavy loads are also not able to conveniently use urban traffic facilities. Rail transportation has been rapidly developing in China in recent years. As public transportation vehicles, urban rail transit should design and construct barrier-free facilities for the disabled and any diverse users. The study objects were twenty four person invited from Nanjing, twelve male and twelve female, they were all physical disabled and used wheelchair. For the sake of finite length of paper, a 30-year-old man was chosen as the sample, he was slightly overweight, with congenital double lower limb impairment. The study happened in Nanjing Metro, a representative of public traffic accessibility, where barrier-free facilities were relatively completed. Methods of behavioral observation, measurement and interview were utilized in the research, to analyze the process of a series of behaviors, including entering, transferring, waiting and arriving. The barrier-free design of rail transit station for people in a wheelchair was thoroughly studied. The results showed that deficiencies still exist in barrier-free facilities in Nanjing Metro. Suggestions and countermeasures are brought up to look forward to better human-centered design in the construction of rail transit in China. In addition, the research also discussed the difficulties during the behavioral process and the causes of the difficulties, which further led to the discussion of physical behavior characteristics and patterns of people with mobility disability and the interaction between human behavior and the environment from the perspective of Ergonomics.