Problems experienced
Problems experienced by the taxi passengers and
drivers have been described by Brattgdrd et al (1973 and
1976), lnstitute for Consumer Ergonomics (1985) and
Department of Transport (1985). In order to get more
information a pre-study was carried out by interviewing
passengers and drivers, and video-filming disabled
people entering and leaving cars at a service and
activity house for the disabled in Gothenburg. The
results show that ordinary taxi cars are used to
transport both ambulant disabled persons and wheelchair
users. Often several people travelled together in
the same car so both the front and back seats were
used. Wheelchair users usually travelled in the front
seat of the car. Special vehicles with wheelchair lifts
and space for wheelchairs were used to transport
passengers who were travelling in the vehicle sitting in
their wheelchairs.
The passengers experienced difficulty in getting into
and out of taxi cars because of the narrow entrances.
They would like to have wider doorways, both the front
and back doorways, and suitable handles to grip when
entering and leaving the car. The most difficult action
was to lift their feet into and out of the car. It was much
more difficult to get in and out of the back seat than the
front seat. It was also difficult to put the personal
technical aids in the car. Some passengers wanted the
seats to be rather stiff, flat and have a low friction
surface which would make it easier to swivel and glide
during the entering and exiting. They also wanted the
seats to be easier to adjust because many of them had
difficulties in coping with the adjusting knobs or levers.
The time for an ambulant disabled person to get out
of a car was about 9-17 seconds and those having
walking aids or bags needed about 9-17 seconds extra
to handle them. The wheelchair users needed about
1244 seconds to transfer to or from the wheelchair.
Sometimes the driver assisted the passenger. It took
about 6-9 seconds for the driver to walk from the
drivers seat to the passenger or vice versa, and about
28-63 seconds to load the wheelchair or to make it
ready. Perfectly fit persons needed about 2.14.0
seconds to enter or leave a car.
The taxi drivers considered that their heaviest task
was to lift and help the wheelchair-bound passengers in
and out of the car, and to lift the wheelchair into the
luggage compartment of the car. They thought that
many wheelchairs were difficult to fold up. The most
common cars for the taxi service in Sweden were Volvo
and Mercedes. They represented about 40% each of
the taxi cars. The rest included many different makes of
car. The dimensions of the entrances are shown in
Table 1.