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Title:

Proposed Surface Roughness Standard for Pathways Used by Wheelchairs

Accession Number:

01515945

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Over two million people in the United States use a wheelchair for their primary means of mobility and rely on functional and accessible sidewalks to participate in their communities. The Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) related to roughness are subjective and not measurable which results in public pathways with many bumps and cracks, which can lead to harmful whole-body vibrations (WBVs) for wheelchair users. ISO standard 2631-1 specifies health guidance caution zones for how much vibration exposure can be dangerous, but it is unknown how surface roughness can affect the amount of vibration that wheelchair users are exposed to. To develop a standard for surface roughness, subjective ratings and root mean square (RMS) accelerations were gathered and analyzed from subjects traveling over surfaces with various roughnesses in their own wheelchairs. As expected, the results show that as surface roughness increased, RMS accelerations increased and subjective ratings decreased. Some surfaces generated RMS accelerations above the ISO health guidance zone and/or were rated as unacceptable by more than half of the subjects suggesting that some surfaces are causing harmful vibrations and discomfort to wheelchair users. Based on the combination of RMS data and subjective feedback from wheelchair users, the authors are proposing a roughness index threshold of 1.20 in/ft for a 5m moving average window, and 0.60 in/ft for a 100m moving average window. This proposal will allow for small “transition” rough areas such as detectible warning pads at crosswalks but will restrict the roughness of the overall long surface or city block.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE60 Accessible Transportation and Mobility.

Monograph Accession #:

01503729

Report/Paper Numbers:

14-4494

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Duvall, Jonathan
Sinagra, Eric
Stuckey, Dianna
Cooper, Rory
Pearlman, Jon

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2014

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC
Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Design; Pavements; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Society; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-4494

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Jan 27 2014 3:34PM