Requirements for entrances to cars
The results of the experiments show that much the same entrance dimensions are required by people confined to wheelchairs and ambulant disabled people. Based on the results obtained, the entrance of a car should have certain dimensions, summarised in Table 5, in order to enable mobility impaired people to use cars, as well as to offer good comfort and safety when entering and leaving. Two values are given. One states the minimum door opening required to make it possible for mobility disabled people to use cars, and the other gives the dimension needed to offer better comfort and safety during the entry and exit operations. The dimensions of the minimum door opening have been established from the experimental results where the subjects and observers stated that it was difficult, but possible, to enter and leave the car, and the times for the operations were increased, but not by more than about 20%. The minimum dimensions are without safety margins, which means that a person has to bend and twist a lot to get into or out of the car. That can be difficult and painful, and there could be a risk for the person, for example, to hit his/her head on the cant rail. The dimensions for comfortable entering and leaving are such that the subjects and observers found the entering and leaving easy, and the times for the operations were less increased, up to about 10%. For cars used in taxi service the dimensions should as far as possible be in the comfortable range as the journeys often are short so the entering and exiting get a relatively high importance.