In this paper, we examined and confirmed the effectiveness of public involvement in improving accessibility in three selected railway projects. These are the Hankyu-Itami Station project, Fukuoka Nanakuma Subway project, and Sendai Tozai Subway project. As we had already previously analyzed the approaches and processes of the three projects through stakeholder interviews and literature reviews, we next carried out a satisfaction survey to collect passengers’ voices, including both persons with and without mobility difficulties. Through the survey, we found that passengers with mobility difficulties benefit more from accessible facilities that have been planned via public involvement. We also found that accessible facilities continue to provide barrier-free and universal design access over time. Judging from our findings, we support the view that public involvement is an effective approach to improving satisfaction in the usability of barrier-free and universal design facilities.
As many new issues are arising in current days, it is necessary to educate students so they can cope with these issues based on multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills. The
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