Willoughby City Council – Bus Stop DDA Compliance Project
To develop a set of DDA compliance guidelines and carry out a DDA compliance assessment for all bus stops within the Willoughby City Council LGA.
Bus Stop DDA Compliance Project
Background
Willoughby City Council covers an area of 22.6 km2 and is located 6 km north of Sydney CBD. There is an extensive public transport network with a total of 402 bus stops located within the LGA.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) provides protection for everyone in Australia against discrimination based on disability. The act sets out to make all public facilities accessible to people with a disability.
Objectives
To develop a set of DDA compliance guidelines and carry out a DDA compliance assessment for all bus stops within the Willoughby City Council LGA.
Scope of Services
The project comprised the following components:
- The creation of a set of DDA Compliance Guidelines
- Field inspections of all bus stops, detailed attribution and collection of supporting photographs
- Data analysis and compliance testing
- Statistical analysis and report
The project also included infrastructure inventory and condition assessments.
DDA Compliance Guidelines
DDA Compliance criteria were established using the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport, the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Guidelines, the Australian Human Rights Commission Accessible Bus Stops Guidelines, previous project experience, and the relevant Australian Standards.
The key performances sought in an accessible bus stop are:
- a firm, evenly graded boarding point, as level as possible
- an unobstructed space large enough to allow for the deployment of a ramp so that a person with a mobility disability can safely get on or off a bus
- a seamless transition between the bus stop and any connecting footpath, or the bus stop and the road where there is no footpath
- clear signage indicating the location of the bus stop; and
- consistently applied tactile ground surface indicators (TGSIs) to assist blind people or people with low vision to identify the presence of a bus stop and the location of the boarding point.
RapidMap worked closely with the Council to review the guidelines and to carefully refine the exact data collection requirements.
The bus stops were broken down into their core components, which are:
- Bus Stop Sign
- Boarding Point
- Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSI)
- Shelter if installed, not compulsory
- Seat if installed, not compulsory
- Access Path
A total of 36 separate DDA compliance issues were identified for reporting.
Field Inspections
RapidMap’s Crest SE/Summit software application was used for the collection, storage and management of the bus stop data.
The software was configured to ensure 100% compliance with all data collection requirements for the field inspections and to ensure ease of use by Council for on-going inspections later.
A detailed document was created to ensure all data requirements were clearly understood by the field inspector. A second reference document was produced to assist in identification of the TGSI configurations.
Field data collection was carried out an Explore LT tablet computer and Crest SE software. A minimum of 3 photos were collected for each bus stop, additional photos were collected for clarification purpose as required.
QC Data Review
A detailed QC review was carried out on all attribute data to ensure validity and data accuracy. Any omissions or inaccuracies were checked in the field and corrected as necessary.
While most attribution values came from very defined pick lists, measurements were manually entered, these were checked based on logic and any outliers were investigated and revised as required.
Data Analysis
The data was exported to MS Excel and detailed data analysis was carried out to test all relevant attribution fields for compliance. Pivot tables were used to provide the statistics for reporting.
The Excel data was imported into MS Access to create a detailed report for each bus stop which included all field attributes, all compliance values and all photos.
Deliverables
The deliverable included
- DDA Compliance Guidelines.
- Detailed report including full methodology, all compliance results for all categories, detailed information on gradients.
- Detailed individual reports for each bus stop.
- Photos from the approach, departure and opposite sides of each bus stop, plus additional clarification photos where required.
