Investigating future transport adoption among disabled and non-disabled users : who adopts, who resists, and why?

This thesis examines how future transport systems can be designed and implemented in ways that meaningfully include people with disabilities, a group routinely marginalised in transport innovation. Grounded in the social model of disability, the research investigates how socio-demographic factors, subjective wellbeing, perceived accessibility, and disability type affect transport choices, drawing on five mixed-methods interconnected studies. It adopts a meta-inference structure in which findings from multiple interconnected studies are synthesised at chapter level rather than reported as discrete, stand-alone studies. The thesis contributes new UK-specific evidence across a spectrum of users and modes. Chapter 4 offers a critical analysis of thirteen UK transport and wellbeing policies, complemented by focus groups with disabled individuals, revealing that policy continues to privilege objective metrics while underrepresenting lived experience, emotional comfort, and psychological safety. Chapters 5 and 6 provide empirical insights from national surveys, focus groups, and interviews comparing preferences for a range of emerging mobility options, including several autonomous vehicle formats, micromobility modes, and conventional transport, across people with physical disabilities, mental health conditions, sensory and cognitive impairments, and non-disabled users. These chapters demonstrate that transport adoption is shaped not only by functional accessibility but by trust, autonomy, perceived safety, and prior experience, with AV taxis emerging as a particularly valued option when thoughtfully designed. Finally, Chapter 7 consolidates methodological learning by examining how accessibility is reported across transport research and synthesising practical recommendations to support more inclusive research practice. Collectively, the thesis offers a detailed, context-specific understanding of mobility preferences across diverse disability groups and modes of travel within the UK, providing an empirically grounded foundation for designing transport futures that promote dignity, independence, and equitable participation.