Maximum acceptable gap between urban-guided transport vehicles and platforms for persons with disabilities: the findings of an experimental study conducted to inform policy decisions

The French ministry responsible for transport has commissioned a study aimed at providing data to determine the maximum gap size between vehicle and platform for guided transport vehicles, which would become a legal requirement. Specific experimental conditions were created, with a physical mock-up simulating a tramway and a platform and providing several gap configurations (between 20 and 50?mm for the horizontal gap and between 20 and 75?mm for the vertical step), and an experimental design based on the negotiation of gaps by wheelchairs users (mainly manual or electric powered). The experiment was conducted with 46 participants with different functional abilities. Data were collected on performance and gap negotiation time. The results of this study indicate that despite the failures observed for the 50?×?50?mm gap size during the experiment, most wheelchair users who took part in the test have successfully negotiated this gap.