There has been a increasing interest in design of public transportation, which helps people to move safely and conveniently. The airport railroad between Seoul and Incheon International Airport, which started to operate in March of 2007, expands choice of customers from previously limited movement through cars and tries to enhance accessibility as well as convenience of customers moving between Seoul and Incheon.
The interior design of the airport railroad, regarding its primary purpose, should consider not only the users with permanent restriction, including seniors or the handicapped, but also the ones with temporary restriction, such as the travelers with huge bags or foreigners who are inconvenient with communication in Korean.
Hence, this research developed a checklist to evaluate history of airport railroad and interior environment of vehicle, to see whether interior environment of airport railroad opened in March 2007 is designed appropriately to users. Based the checklist, it analyzed problems of airport railroad by evaluation and actual survey and suggested ways to improve airport railroad user's convenience upon the result of the survey.
Most of all, in order to develop a checklist for evaluating interior environment of airport railroad, this research compared and analyzed 「Regulations to improve transportation of mobility handicapped people」 in 「Law to improve transportation of mobility handicapped people」, the Korean regulation related to transportation environment, with 「Standards for efficient transportation」 in 「Barrier-Free law of transportation, the Japanese regulation pertaining to transportation environment. Japan has a long history of railway transportation and its railway carries relatively more passengers than other vehicles like Korea. After that, it summarized items to evaluate interior environment of airport railroad based on preceding researches and developed a basic checklist. Based on the checklist, this research performed preliminary investigation to revise and complement detailed items, and completed final checklist for evaluating interior environment of airport railroad.
The items in checklist were categorized according to the expected flow of user's traffic and whether they affect users and implemented to the research. According to the flow of user's traffic, the space was divided from main entrance of station to door of vehicle as main entrance, waiting lounge, ticket office and ticket machine, ticket barrier, vertical means of travel(stairs, escalator, and elevator), internal slope, platform, restroom for handicapped and non-handicapped people. In addition, it also divided convenience facilities from getting on and off train into general, safety, and miscellaneous facilities and included related details due to the limit of vehicle's space. This research finally scored results of evaluation and investigation based on checklist by the Likert scale, and tried to standardize 3 point standard of it to maintain objectivity. In case of installation, 'Installed' accounted for 3 point and it was 1 point for 'Not installed' and 2 point for 'Installed but do not observe standard'. If an item did not belong to any case, it received zero point and ruled out from the evaluation. For the items that acquired relatively low score upon the checklist, this research investigated into the reason and offered proper recommendations. While analyzing interior environment of airport railroad to improve accuracy of actual survey, it used measurement tools(measuring tape, protractor, set square, and writing instruments), and took pictures to provide photo data.
The conclusions of this study based on the results are as follows.
1. To evaluate interior environment of airport railroad, it developed a checklist based on the guidance contained in pertinent regulations of Korea and Japan, and examined each item's appropriateness through actual survey. In contents, installation standards of Korea's 「Regulations to improve transportation of mobility handicapped people」related to railway transportation was more specified than Japan's 「Standards for efficient transportation」, and suggested scale was bigger. On the other hand, installation standards of Japan were more comprehensive compared to the ones of Korea, but it also contained alternative methods for the case of hard installation due to structural difficulty. As a result, Japan is considered to have more limitation of improvement due to its long history of railway transportation than Korea. It already had established travel convenience facilities for mobility handicapped people through the laws in former days. The checklist, which was developed based on the present installation standards of Korea and Japan, is considered to be utilized as a basic data to select basic items for developing actual survey tool or poll, concerning evaluation of interior environment of not only stage 1 section of airport railroad, but stage 2 section of metropolitan railway in the National Capital region.
2. According to the result of 3-point Likert scale evaluation on the internal facilities of 11 spaces in 6 stations of railway railroad, the average score of airport railroad was 2.6 point. Among them, ticket barrier had no problems with 3 point, and there were other facilities receiving relatively high score like waiting lounge, escalator, and elevator, with 2.9, 2.8 and 2.7 point respectively. In addition, stairs and platform recorded 2.6 point, while internal slope and restroom for non-handicapped people scored 2.5 point. However, main entrance, ticket machine, and restroom for handicapped people received relatively low score, recording 2.2 point. In particular, facilities close to 3 places in 6 stations were needed to be improved immediately. In main entrance, in addition to emergency exit and station name guide, it was needed to provide internal facilities that guide use of station and to improve tactile direction boards for handicapped people. Moreover, it was required to install Braille marks not only in both ends but in curved parts. Specification of facilities of ticket office and ticket machine was identical in all 6 stations. It was needed to improve facilities to make them more convenient to wheel chair users, visually handicapped people, and children because subspace of desk in ticket office, subspace of ticket machine, and Braille marks on control button were either not installed or irrational. Furthermore, it is found that handicapped people could use station more conveniently if more guide blocks were installed. In case of restrooms for handicapped people, it needed to provide miscellaneous facilities such as diaper replacing table and storage facility because people did not get any related support. Convenience for blind people was needed to be improved by installing Braille blocks and marks that lead people to use restrooms. In addition, it was needed to install horizontal and vertical safety bar according to standards not only around of restroom seats but washstands that are one of main facilities. Also, it is needed to change switches to control opening and closing of entrance as well as lighting, and baby seats and etiquette bells were worthy to be installed for children and handicapped people accompanied by a protector. Total average of each station's facility evaluation score was 2.6 point. Among them, A~E stations got 2.6 point and F station got 2.4 point. F station got relatively low point due to the lower accessibility to ticket office, ticket machine facilities, and restrooms out of ticket barrier than other stations, because maintenance institutes of its facility were connected to other facilities of Incheon International Airport. Hence, the entire improvement of these items were needed - Braille blocks and guidance blocks were not installed out of ticket barrier and all restrooms for handicapped and non-handicapped people were not installed in station more than anything else, so it is needed to establish them immediately. If these improvements are realized, environment of airport railroad station can be more convenient to users.
3. The result of 3 point Likert scale evaluation on the interior facilities of general and direct trains in airway railroad was high as 2.7 point. Among them, safety facilities had no problems with 3 point and it was 2.5 for guidance facilities, recording relatively high score. In addition, general facilities received 2.5 point and miscellaneous facilities got 2.4 point. In general facilities of train, passage between seats of B train was 60cm. It was extremely narrow for wheel chair users or pedestrians who carry a load, so passage between exclusive seats was needed be expanded considering the flow of their traffic. A train lacks means to recognize the size of personal space, so customers may find it inconvenient to share seats with others. Therefore, it can be an alternative to paint the seats in different colors so that people can recognize the size of the seats. Both trains reserved space for wheelchairs, but it additionally requires establishment of support post and the equipment to tie up wheelchairs. Moreover, the establishment of vertical handrail for the sake of safe traveling and support of passenger was faulty, so it was required to be installed to prevent accidents. Particularly, B train needs to be improved immediately because passengers will have to rely on seat when moving through narrow passage since it lacked hanger-type handrail. When users of Incheon International Airport move with a large load, the train did not provide storage facility at all, and B train had that facility but there is not a fixing or anti-loss facility. Therefore, storage facility in both trains is needed to be improved. Both trains had no problems for safety facilities. In guide facilities, movement in a crammed train after boarding was expected because access-guide indicator related to mobility handicapped people was not installed in door of train. So it was needed to be improved to make mobility handicapped people prepare boarding more easily from platform. In miscellaneous facilities related to service and convenience, each train showed large gap because B train charged more than A train. Among them, IT facilities such as wireless Internet were required to be installed in A train to provide convenience to users at a low cost. If the recommendations are realized, environment of both airport railroad trains can be improved.
Based on the result of this study, the suggestions of this research are as follows.
1. The checklist of this study deals with history and vehicle's interior environment of airport railroad, and is developed with items of convenience and safety based on the regulations of law in Korea and Japan. However, as life will become enriched and demands for environment are expected to increase, comprehensive items such as evaluation item for examining way of improvement in profound aesthetic aspects need to be developed. In addition, it is needed to find out comprehensive improvements with investigation on the satisfaction and demand for the interior environment.
2. This study limits range of actual survey as interior environment of 2-type trains. However, further studies need to expand their range to examine present condition of airport railroad's facilities comprehensively. For example, they can expand their range to the metropolitan railway in the National Capital region which is a transfer railway connected to the airport railroad, to investigate transfer area that many people aggregates, and expand range by including not only a station but an external access way and parking lot.
，韩语论文范文，韩语论文范文 |
