COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria welcome the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft Transport Accessibility Strategy (the Strategy) and support the efforts to create an accessible transport network.
Older people, including older people with a disability, are a key cohort that will be supported by the draft Strategy. This is essential, with Victoria getting older, and older Victorians accounting for a significant proportion of the population that have a disability.
It is essential that the future Strategy ensures older Victorians are supported and safe on their journeys, whether they are by private or public transport. For instance, we are currently concerned by the increasing number of people, particularly older people, being killed on the road post-pandemic, and longer-term trends around pedestrian deaths involving older people.
As part of this, we want the draft Strategy to be strengthened so that it can support the experiences of older people with a disability. We recommend:
- broader recognition of ageing and disability in the context of the Strategy,
- inclusion of affordability in the vision for the Strategy,
- a further objective on the need for transport to support how people live,
- an additional strategic direction around assistive technology,
- a stronger commitment to expand how public transport services are delivered utilising abroader variety of delivery models and vehicles,
- an additional strategic direction around public behaviour,
- an additional strategic direction to address digital exclusion,
- the provision of further information about the prioritisation framework,
- the development of an outcomes framework to support implementation of the Strategy.
We remain available and willing to work with the Department of Transport and Planning to support the refinement and implementation of the Strategy.
