The need for public transportation has grown in recent years. This trend is in large part due to the rise in gas prices and the unreliability of many motor vehicles. As a result car ownership has become financially impossible for many individuals.

In response, more people are taking the subway or bus. For individuals who can easily walk about, accessing public transportation is not difficult.

However, there exists another category of individuals who need special accommodations in order to tap into the public transportation system. These individuals are people who cannot walk on their own and, as a result, need the assistance of a wheelchair to help them stay mobile. In these cases it is now essential for all public transportation organizations to provide handicap accessible vans.

Accessible vans are designed to have a lift which is attached to the vans entrance to allow handicap individuals to easily be transported from the ground to the passenger area. This can be done quickly and efficiently in a manner which allows all passengers to be safely seated.

It is now becoming common policy for all public transportation to be catered to people with physical handicaps. As such, bus and subway terminals, and the subways and busses themselves must be designed to provide assistance to those with physical handicaps.

There are also certain areas which offer special accessible vans that can pick up a handicap individual from certain designated spots. This ensures that the individual does not have to travel long distances to get to a bus or subway terminal. This is extremely important for many people who rely on public transportation to get to work and also use public transportation to perform all of their other routine tasks throughout the day.

Many public transportation agencies will even go one step further by providing home pickup for handicap individuals. In order to determine what special accommodations are available each individual should contact their city or town to see if handicap accessible vans are available for them. In many cases there is someone who is specially trained within the town to provide the information the handicap individual needs to ensure they are served properly.

Public transportation has many benefits to a community. It reduces are carbon output, gets people where they need to go in a cost effective manner and provides many valuable jobs. It is important that all public transportation also has the ability to share these many benefits with individuals who have physical handicaps. Through this work, a larger and more positive role can be played by public transportation.