The purpose of this article is to present and evaluate the scope and regulatory tools used to ensure the rights of disabled passengers to exercise their daily mobility. It is widely known that transport is a factor determining the daily activity of every human being, both in the economic and social spheres.
Access to transport services adapted to the needs of disabled people is not only a condition for the possibility of fulfilling their basic life functions (education, work, etc.), but also for enabling disabled people to participate in various forms of modern society life, and thus active participation in such spheres of life as those in which able-bodied people participate, such as: sports, recreation, culture, political or social activity. Ensuring the realization of the rights of disabled passengers in transport is a necessary condition for their full social integration. It is worth remembering that transport also has an important social and integrative dimension. The availability of transport services for disabled people means, in practice, increasing their life opportunities.
In Poland, there was a lack of proper regulations in this service sector until recently, although solutions in the transport system improving the mobility conditions of disabled people have been systematically, albeit slowly, implemented for several decades. However, it was only Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004 that necessitated the implementation of regulations developed by this group into Polish legislation. In the European Union, a policy of protecting passenger rights is being successively implemented, including ensuring the realization of the rights of disabled passengers in order to achieve the goal of the Community transport policy, which is “mobility for all”.
The paper will present the role of the European regulator, which is the Commission and the European Parliament in the field of passenger rights, including disabled passengers. The implication of European standards in Polish law regarding the rights of disabled passengers has resulted in the creation and functioning of national regulators of these rights, whose functions and scope of competence will be analyzed in terms of their effectiveness in ensuring transport services for disabled people and respecting the rights of this group of passengers.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine