Edinburgh has become the first Scottish City to implement a pavement parking ban, which commenced on 29 January. This measure aims to prevent vehicles from obstructing pavements, ensuring safer and more accessible streets for pedestrians. Under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, local councils have been granted the authority to introduce various parking prohibitions, including bans on pavement parking, parking at dropped kerbs, known crossing places, and double parking. During the government consultation, our members and Access Panels were unanimous in their support for introducing a ban on pavement parking. Vehicles parked on the pavements force people onto the road. This
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  You may wonder why Blue Badge holder vehicles which do not meet minimum emission standards for the Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow are exempt. Our response to that is – have you or someone close to you ever travelled with a disability? When using a car with a disability, mobility may be an issue in terms of getting from the car to wherever you’re going, which is why Blue Badge spaces are always right at an entrance and have more space to account for things such as wheelchairs. Public transport can be fantastic, but
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From 3 August 2023 to 13 August 2023, the UCI World Cycling Championships take place in various locations across Scotland. The Championships are expected to have major impacts on the road and transport network. The circuit means there will be road closures in and around Glasgow and one of the roads affected is Gordon Street which is right outside Glasgow Central Station. This is where people are often dropped off and where the taxi rank is located. During the Championships, the taxi rank will be relocated to Hope Street, this also has level access with a similar slope gradient to the
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The Making Connections project created opportunities for transport operators, designers and disabled and Deaf people to work together, between February and August 2019, to explore a process for improving connections between train stations and ferry terminals. NorthLink Ferries, CalMac Ferries, ScotRail, a design team, a number of organisations representing disabled people and more than ten disabled participants made regular contributions throughout the project process. Many others attended project events. The project resulted in innovative ideas for better services, a Book of Challenges and Ideas, a film and a website. A response to one of the ideas was in development by
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We are delighted to be launching our summary report on the four-part weekly poll series we conducted in October and November 2022! This series of questions focused on experiences of communication with transport providers in a variety of forms and across all key modes of transport, including bus, rail, and ferries. The key forms of communication that the series focused on were access to information, points of contact with transport providers, formats of inclusive communication being provided, and experiences with consultation and coproduction. This report was an opportunity to highlight current lived experiences relating to communication with transport providers in
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Wednesday 8 February 2023 2:00pm – 3:30pm This webinar will be an opportunity to discuss what you think the key priorities for Accessible Travel in Scotland should be in the coming years and share your insights about what impactful change you would like to see. We will hear from Steven Dora the Accessible Travel and Blue Badge Policy Team Leader for Transport Scotland and Lyn Pornaro the Chief Executive Officer for Disability Equality Scotland. They will both share updates of where Transport Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland are now with the work being done in relation to the Accessible Travel
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Glasgow Airport is trialling an app to ensure all passengers who require additional support get the help they need. Approximately 25% of requests for special assistance are made on the day of travel and are not pre-arranged for a number of reasons.  The PRM Assist app will supplement the current service which is usually pre-arranged by the passenger via their airline or booking agent. This means that Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) passengers who have been unable to book assistance with their airline can do so using the new app, or it will allow the airport’s service provider OCS to
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Join us on Wednesday 8 February 2023 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm as we host an online discussion about the Accessible Travel Framework.  This webinar is an opportunity to discuss what you think the key priorities for Accessible Travel in Scotland should be in the coming years and share your insights about what impactful change you would like to see. We will hear from key staff at Transport Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland, who will share updates of where we are now and what they feel are the key priorities of the framework from the perspective of their organisations moving forward.
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On Wednesday 26 October Disability Equality Scotland joined the relaunch of the National Hate Crime Charter, a zero-tolerance policy to hate crime on Scotland’s public transport network. We are asking key organisations to commit to this policy to actively challenge the status quo around hate crime in Scotland where within this disability makes up 11% of hate crimes in Scotland and 97% of disability hate crime goes unreported. At this event we were joined by representatives from Glasgow Disability Alliance, BEMIS, Police Scotland, the Crown Office, and COPFS who raised awareness of important topics around hate crime, such as third-party
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