Accessible platform-based mobility: Identifying a regulatory framework accommodating the needs of persons with reduced mobility

Platform-based mobility solutions have emerged thanks to business models and technological innovations. Although these solutions are promoted by policies to tackle the sustainability challenges of urban mobility, their accessibility for persons with reduced mobility seems problematic. Platform-based mobility solutions pose accessibility challenges for these vulnerable persons. For example, micromobility vehicles are often designed for average users, physically able to ride them. Similarly, persons with reduced mobility face barriers in accessing car-sharing services if their needs are disregarded in the design of car fleets. Moreover, ride-hailing poses several accessibility barriers. The lack of wheelchair-accessible vehicles, uncomfortable communication with drivers, and drivers’ lack of tolerance concerning disabilities or assistance animals are problematic (LaRosa & Bucalo, 2020). Further, digital platforms/apps create accessibility barriers, especially for the visually impaired, digitally illiterate, and those with cognitive impairments (Ranchordás, 2020). In the absence of a regulatory framework for platform-based mobility solutions, the task of ensuring the access of persons with reduced mobility seems to be left to the voluntary efforts of private service providers. Indeed, these solutions are often provided by profit-oriented private companies. The reconciliation of societal interests with commercial interests, however, may be difficult in some cases (Docherty et al., 2018), particularly when the provision of accessible services creates additional costs with little to no financial return. Hence, there is a serious risk that these vulnerable persons are excluded from mobility without regulatory intervention. In my paper, I discuss the accessibility challenges of platform-based mobility and identify and examine regulatory responses by the jurisdictions of the UK and California. These jurisdictions were selected after preliminary desktop research, revealing that their regulators paid particular attention to the accessibility needs of persons with reduced mobility. Based on this analysis, I formulate recommendations for regulators to ensure the accessibility of platform-based solutions for persons with reduced mobility.