Despite emphasising the importance of building an inclusive city for all in the London Plan (2021), the capitals infrastructure, including the transport network, displays design elements that fall short of adequately meeting the needs of VIP. This failure signals an inadequate understanding of VIP user needs and, indeed, the wider spectrum of accessibility requirements of other groups. At present, however, not enough is known about the journey experience of VIP, nor is there appropriate emphasis being placed on this user group by the relevant design practitioners within Transport for London (TfL). This research has demonstrated that the journey experience of VIP in London is fraught with barriers resulting from infrastructural design, operational practice, and a growing variety of design interventions introduced to meet wider societal goals. While it is acknowledged that VIP experience greater difficulty traveling in London when compared to those with full sight owing to the limitations imposed by their visual impairment, experiences brought about by design practice and the conscious prioritisation of certain user groups over others, exacerbates the already unequal experience of travel by this user group. This research has shown that exclusionary design practice is acutely experienced by VIP on London’s streets, where a growing number of mixed-use spaces are being created in places where, previously, clear demarcation of space existed. Other interventions, such as continuous footways, and particularly, the expanding network of infrastructure to support personal mobility, all produce the unintended outcome of widening the equity gap between atypical bodies and VIP.

The dissertation identifies the current barriers to using public transport, and how this affects the lives of disabled people in Surrey. Surrey differs to cities by having more rural areas, and so this study provides a different perspective