Traveling by public transportation isn’t always easy. If you’ve ever tried to navigate a metro station in a country where you don’t speak the language, you know the feeling: service routes can be confusing, stations hard to navigate, ticket options complicated, and crowds overwhelming.
For customers with special needs, public transportation can feel like an insurmountable challenge — even when you understand the system perfectly.
Many train and metro stations — particularly those built in the UK and many major American cities — were designed in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that point, the needs of mobility-impaired travelers were hardly a consideration. In the U.S., more than 900 stations were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990; these stations often lack many accessibility features that make public transportation a viable option for all.
Managing Fare Evasion
But while transportation agencies should be working to make their services more accessible, a competing trend is standing in the way: fare evasion. Customers who avoid paying the fair price for their journey are a major source of revenue loss for transit agencies. To take one recent example, a survey conducted by Transport for New South Wales in Australia found that fare evasion led to revenue loss of nearly 70 million AUD during the first half of 2024. These losses are unsustainable for transit agencies and can lead to reduced service and degraded customer experiences.
In an effort to prevent evasion, many agencies introduced new physical barriers to their stations. While these fare gate changes may have made it more difficult for people to skip payment, they also created new challenges for those with special mobility requirements also made the service less accessible to those with special needs.
We shouldn’t have to sacrifice accessibility to reduce fare evasion. New technologies are helping transit agencies reclaim their station environment — protecting revenues without hindering accessibility and tarnishing the overall customer experience.
Why Accessibility Matters
For those who don’t face accessibility challenges, it can be easy to dismiss the problem. Surely they have other options to get from Point A to Point B? Why make such sweeping (and costly) changes for a problem that the vast majority of people don’t have to worry about?
This line of thinking doesn’t just lack empathy — it’s flat-out wrong. While 12.2% of adults in the United States have a mobility disability, the reality is that every single person is likely to experience temporary disability at some point in their life. You may not have a permanent disability, but if you break your leg tomorrow at the gym, you’ll suddenly find yourself relying on ramps and elevators to make your way through a public transit station.
Beyond temporary disabilities, we are also an aging society. In the United Kingdom, one in four people will be over the age of 65 by 2041 — a significant swath of the population facing increasing age related physical and cognitive impairments. In the U.S., the number of people 65 or over is expected to reach 82 million by 2050.
Of course, it’s worth noting that even those without restricted mobility can struggle in stations without good accessibility. Parents with strollers, tourists with luggage, and even those trying to carry a load of groceries — they could all benefit from an increased focus on accessibility. This focus is not about designing for a minority, but about universal design. When we design in a way that makes daily travel easy for those overcoming life’s toughest mobility challenges, we will inevitably make travel better for everyone.
Achieving Accessibility and Security Through Transit Technology
It might seem like transit agencies are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the UK’s Equality Act 2010 establish firm requirements for accessibility. At the same time, agencies need to reduce fare evasion to maintain financial viability.
Thankfully, new technology breakthroughs in three key areas make it possible to improve both security and accessibility:
Detection
Limiting fare evasion is no longer a matter of just building physical barriers between passengers and vehicles. New detection solutions use technologies like sensor arrays and advanced cameras to identify fare evasion. These detection tools can trigger audio and visual alarms to notify staff and other passengers, making it easier to catch fare evaders in the moment and demonstrating the immediate consequences of non-payment.
Data
Those arrays of sensors and cameras produce a wealth of data which can be used to identify fare evasion patterns and create a real-time understanding of customer behavior. Agencies can apply artificial intelligence to the collected data, allowing the system to precisely differentiate between those who are evading fares (for example, by tailgating) and those who may be struggling with the barrier (such as parents with young children).
This large volume of data empowers transit agencies to make better decisions about staffing and enforcement — allocating both station staff and security to those areas where they’ll have the most impact.
Accessibility
Several new technologies can make stations more accessible without increasing the risk of fare evasion. Ultra-wideband (UWB) gates support hands-free ticketing — instead of serving as a barrier, these gates can detect passes even within a bag or wallet. Those with mobility issues no longer have to struggle with holding a transit pass while navigating their wheelchair through a gate, nor do they need to tap their pass to a target if visually impaired. Rather than blocking entrance until a pass is shown, UWB gates have the potential to provide an always-open solution — closing only if no ticket is detected.
Passenger-oriented displays improve accessibility by making it easier for customers to navigate their way through stations and confirm successful payment. Agencies can design these displays to serve those with vision impairment from macular degeneration — a leading cause of blindness for those over 65 — and they can position displays to be visible to those in wheelchairs. Passenger-oriented displays are critical for reducing customer confusion, allowing all passengers to move seamlessly through the station.
Above all, transit agencies can look to new technology partnerships to upgrade their station environments and help those with accessibility needs. In New York, the MTA is expanding its use of NaviLens — an app that provides wayfinding, information, and language translation for riders through a QR code. NaviLens is deployed on Cubic gates throughout the city — informing users about elevator status and platform directions after the gate.
For transit agencies, improving accessibility shouldn’t be a matter of just checking a box or complying with regulations. It’s the right thing to do. But with new technologies and an innovative mindset, we can improve accessibility while also reducing fare evasion and enhancing the passenger experience.