Partnership to study wheelchair transportation safety

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and three other partners have been awarded a $4.5 million five-year federal grant to continue research on transportation safety and usability for people in wheelchairs. The U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research has renewed funding of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety, a partnership headed by the UMTRI that also includes the universities of Pittsburgh, Louisville (Ky.) and Colorado. The partnership will conduct research and development in six project areas, ranging from developing solutions for forward-facing and rear-facing wheelchair passenger stations in large accessible transit vehicles, to investigating issues of schoolbus transportation for children in wheelchairs.