Mobility in Public Environments and Use of Public Transport : exploring the situation for people with acquired cognitive functional limitations

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis was to explore and gain deeper insight into and understanding of mobility in public environments for people with acquired cognitive functional limitations (target group of this thesis) and of reasons why some of them do not use public transport. Using an explorative approach, the target group’s mobility was firstly discussed by experts in focus group interviews. Secondly the reasons for not using public transport anymore after acquiring cognitive functional limitations was described by the target group themselves. The results of this thesis show that mobility and especially use of public transport is not an unproblematic activity for the target group. They face usability problems such as difficulties to manage the serial tasks, the complexity and dynamic in traffic environments. Further, other people’s acts and decisions as well as how the target group dealt with feelings, such as anxiety and fear, play a role for their mobility and use of public transport. Reasons for not using public transport could be that the target group did not consider public transport usable or it could be that they considered use of public transport as completely out of the question. Planning for mobility and usability in public transport for people with acquired cognitive functional limitations would mean to completely integrate a travel-chain perspective, to make sure that information is available on beforehand, to offer routes with calmer surroundings parallel with ordinary public transport used by for example commuters.