Omer Juma’s organisation 4 Lines 4 Days assesses the accessibility of metro stations. Findings in Montreal surprised city leaders, who have since commissioned improvements.
Between 1984 and 2014, a succession of law changes related to the built environment secured stronger equality rights for citizens in Spain’s Catalonia region. “It was about removing architectural barriers to access,” accessibility expert Omer Juma tells us.
He explains that the motivation behind the Accessibility Law was that “no one should have trouble getting in and out” of the region’s buildings – public or otherwise. Over 20 years, iterative updates to the law were designed to improve quality of life and independence further, making the built environment fully accessible regardless of personal disabilities or reduced mobility.
This led to a concerted effort to bake-in access for spectators and athletes attending the 1992 summer Olympics and Paralympics in Barcelona – the first time both had been hosted in the same venue. “That showed that we can build places that work for everyone,” Omer explains. “I think we can take inspiration from this as a starting point if we are building something today.”
Accessible Cities for Everyone’s Needs
The website of the International Paralympic Committee claims that “Barcelona 1992 acted as a catalyst for urban renewal” which “led to significant improvements in general infrastructure” that transformed what “used to be an inaccessible city for persons with disabilities into one of the world’s most accessible”.
Proof that planning guided by diverse needs from the start opens metaphorical doors for more people but closes them to no one.
What works for one person also solves a problem for someone else.
Currently living in Barcelona, Omer sees how the Olympic legacy has shaped the city, its mindset, and – appealing to his specific interest – public transport.
Through his organisation, 4 Days 4 Lines, our CityChanger provides auditing services and delivers workshops on how to identify a city’s diverse mobility needs. He explores what a transit system has got right, and where it needs improvement.
Montreal’s Messy Metro
It began in 2020, when Omer was living in Montreal, Canada, designing sustainability programmes at McGill University. Initiating a citizen research project, over four days he travelled the four transit lines – giving his organisation its name – visiting each of the 68 stations, photographing barriers and best practices, counting escalators and elevators, and climbing up and down the 8,600 steps.
Documenting the accessibility elements as he went, Omer visualised micro- and macroscale barriers to public transport, structuring his data collection around the perspectives of 10 unique demographics: visually impaired people; wheelchair users; the deaf and auditory impaired; travellers (e.g. with heavy luggage); parents with strollers and young children; cyclists with bikes; neurodiverse individuals; elderly people; pet and service dog owners; and those with reduced mobility. The last of these could be caused by, for example, joint issues like arthritis and hip complaints, or problems with strength and motor skills, recovery following medical procedures, and frailty caused by advanced age or bone disease.
“I took photographs of tactile paving, braille buttons, visual cues, and auditory cues,” he explains. “As a photographer who likes to capture and document cities, this is a fantastic project,” and one which promises impact.
An Accessibility Analysis
Like Barcelona, Montreal is well served by its subway system. The city’s tourist information site claims that its metro lines are “clean, safe and fast”. The city centre is efficiently connected to “major tourist sites, bus stops and train stations” providing decent connectivity via public transport. But Omer’s analysis revealed a different side.
In 2017, only 11 out of 68 metro stations had elevators, a figure that increased to 16 by 2020, Omer says – about 23.5%. But from his detailed audit, he determined that true accessibility was much lower: that only 14 metro stations were really accessible.
Furthermore, there were inconsistencies causing confusion. A mix of stairs, single- and bidirectional escalators, lifts, and ramps connect the three distinct levels of stations: street, terminal, and platform.
And where Montreal’s transit lines intersect (e.g. Berri-UQAM, Lionel Groulx, Snowdon, Jean-Talon), Omer saw that different access options appeared on different lines – hardly ever continuously – requiring passengers to traverse lengthy walkways to carry on with their journey.
Implications of Inaccessibility
Consequences of such design flaws range from inconveniences such as longer journey times to serious personal implications. The anxiety of struggling to access public transit causes some individuals to choose not to attempt it at all. As a knock on effect, isolation further excludes them from social and work opportunities. This is bad news for mental wellbeing and economic independence. As an alternative solution, it also pushes people towards unsustainable modes of transportation, such as cars.
Before opening its lift in 2020, it was difficult for people with reduced personal mobility to get to Montreal’s Jean Drapeau Park, the “island of all the parties and festivals,” Omer explains. “It’s very surprising that people had to drive or change one or two buses.”
Our CityChanger also informs us that, by 2025, only two of the main universities (McGill and UQAM) were close to fully accessible stations, leaving plenty of campuses unconnected.
We’re still ignoring the fact that there are people from all around the city that need to get to all these places.
However, Omer admits that he has not audited Montreal’s elevated light railway system, which opened after he moved away and may close this gap. According to the REM website, it promotes accessibility with features such as obstacle-free pathways, braille information boards, and wider train doors for easier entry.
The Spectrum of Metro Services
Generally speaking, even stations themselves serve multiple functions, which end up being off limits unless access is thought through holistically.
In plenty of cities, metro stops double up as places of commerce and social interaction, where underground-level retailers and cafes invite people to meet, shop, and dine – exclusively for people who can get there. “These third spaces serve a unique function for many demographics in our cities. Montreal and Toronto both have underground cities serving as a great refuge during heatwaves, rainy weather, and harsh winters.” Budapest also has several metro stations with these underground-level spaces, Omer adds.
Image credits: 4 Days 4 Lines / Omer Juma
Influencing Policy Change
But the situation is improving.
From the data he collated, Omer created a series of wayfinding posters that showcase the extent of access in different metro stations. “You start noticing there’s a certain pattern in the designs” of stations on each line, Omer says.
Designed in a simplified, bilingual, easy-to-read format, the posters were of particular interest to policymakers, designers, and urban planners who – like his former university professors – had never considered some of the issues he raised. “Many of them were like, ‘We’ve never seen our stations from that perspective’,” Omer recalls.
“When I did workshops for them, the lack of downward escalators especially took people by surprise. There is an assumption that it’s easier for people to come down the stairs than to come up.” This was an issue for Omer’s own father, who was prevented from entering a station with only stairs going down while recovering from a knee injury – the incident that initially prompted the first audit.
Relying on a single accessible route is also a game of roulette, our CityChanger warns. “Imagine the days that the escalators are not working, which is very frequent in Montreal.” Or where “you only have one elevator and everyone who needs it is waiting in line at each level,” which can create a backlog.
If the station is truly accessible, you don’t have bottlenecks. Things flow much faster. It’s more intuitive. People are not bumping into each other.
Maybe with this in mind, Montreal has expedited retrofitting a bunch of stations. By 2025, 44% had been made accessible, and by 2030, when one of the transit lines is due to be extended by five more stops, this will rise to 53% – more than double that of a decade earlier.
Omer acknowledges “the hard work that they’re doing” to improve public mobility but makes a good point: almost half of stations will still be out of bounds. “I’d like to challenge that narrative by saying it’s still 47% inaccessible. And there is no plan for them.”
International Analysis
After this work in Montreal, 4 Days 4 Lines repeated the analysis in more cities: Vancouver and Toronto in Canada, and – over the course of four months in early 2023 – Turin, Italy; Antwerp, Belgium; and Budapest, Hungary.
These competitive analyses have provided new insights into how different places handle metro system accessibility. “Turin was made accessible from the beginning, same for Vancouver.”
Just as was the case in Barcelona, Vancouver’s transit network – built in the 1990s – was influenced by provincial law: British Columbia’s inclusive Disability Act.
What’s remarkable is that 100% accessible is not the default for new metro systems. “And they won’t be retrofitted for the next 20 years,” Omer explains. This sends a strong, marginalising message to people living with limited mobility and it will be an expensive mistake to correct. Toronto is one city that’s “struggling to put the money towards accessibility” despite best intentions.
It can work, though, as Budapest proves. Hungary’s capital city has had a funicular elevator up to the castle for more than 150 years, and now it has committed to undoing past injustices by progressively retrofitting stations on two of its metro lines, and has built its fourth line to be “completely accessible” from the outset.
Accessible Navigation
The London Underground, UK, took a similar approach with the Elizabeth Line, which opened in 2022. This too was built with accessibility in mind, including step-free access in all stations down to platform level. Equitable access here is systemic, not just part of the infrastructure.
Staff are trained to respectfully support travellers’ requests for assistance in all stages of their journey from buying tickets to transferring trains and finding priority seating.
Where such services don’t exist, transport planners can at least help by designing intuitive spaces.
Intuitive Entrances
Getting to the platforms in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver requires a ticket presented at the turnstiles, but operationally they differ.
Entrances to Montreal’s metro stations have butterfly doors, “the heaviest to push in winter,” Omer explains. Toronto, on the other hand, has outdoor staircases that descend from the pavement or, for stations that can be entered at street level, “they have these very light doors to push through”.
Image credits: 4 Days 4 Lines / Omer Juma
Vancouver’s monorail – SkyTrain – provides a third option: garage doors that remain open during operating hours. These “have reduced one more barrier to entry”. Once inside, tactile paving leads the way to ticket machines, elevators, and gates, which are all conveniently close to the entrance. “It’s just very straightforward and simple.”
The weather is a consideration, admittedly. Montreal and Toronto are much colder in winter – sometimes reaching -40°C. Heavy doors prevent snow flurries and windchill from entering stations. But there are other options.
Image credits: 4 Days 4 Lines / Omer Juma
Like Budapest, the Dutch city of Amsterdam gets plenty of wintery weather, but has “outdoor escalators, and they work even in snow”.
Omer has theories as to why other places don’t pick up on this example. “Maybe it’s not a priority for people, but I do think sometimes it’s also that they don’t have the right solutions in front of them.”
That’s one barrier that he hopes the 4 Days 4 Lines audits and interactive workshops will alter by drawing attention to the myriad issues blocking equitable accessibility of transit stations, and the possibilities for solutions.
“Communication channels are so critical in creating the movement.”
Further Reading
For a more detailed account of the Barcelona case study, head to the 4 Days 4 Lines website.