Developing a Fuzzy-Logic Method for Evaluating the Accessibility of Disable People to Public Transportation in Rural Communities
PI: Mohammadsoroush (Tommy) Tafazzoli (WSU), tommy.tafazzoli@wsu.edu, ORCID: 0000-0003-4946-3666
Co PIs: none
AMOUNT & MATCH: $40,000 from PacTrans; $40,000 Match
PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 8/16/2019 – 8/15/2021
STATUS: Active
CATEGORIES: Accessibility, Disabilities, Public Transportation, Rural Communities
RESEARCH PROJECT HOT SHEET: 
UTC PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:
FINAL PROJECT REPORT: will be available once completed
PROJECT DATA: will be available once completed
DESCRIPTION: This research will introduce a method that will comprehensively evaluate the accessibility of public transportation services for disabled people in rural areas. The proposed approach will fill the gap of the existing evaluation methods by transforming the existing transportation-quality evaluation to an accessibility-quality evaluation focused on disabled people in rural areas, by evaluating accessibility for four major disability types, and by introducing a fuzzy-logic assessment that generates a quantitative score for the evaluation.
The research is expected to have the following benefits:
- detecting the accessibility issues based on the disability type that leads to meeting the demands of people from various disability groups (not just wheelchair users)
- maximizing the efficiency of the investments in improving the accessibility by prioritizing different measures based on scores with universal interpretations
- contributing to the health, vitality, well-being, and economic independence of disabled people living in rural areas
| DELIVERABLE | DUE DATE | DATE RECEIVED |
| Research Project Progress Report #1 | 4/10/2020 | |
| Research Project Progress Report #2 | 10/10/2020 | |
| Research Project Progress Report #3 | 4/10/2021 | |
| No Cost Extension Request | 6/15/2021 | |
| Draft Report | 6/15/2021 | |
| Final Project Report | 8/15/2021 |
