The next meeting of GATESHEAD Public Transport Users Group will take place on Wednesday 9th April 2025 at Gateshead Civic Centre, at 14:30.
(Council Chamber – first floor).
Gateshead Civic Centre is a 5 minute walk from Gateshead Interchange for Tyne & Wear Metro and numerous bus services.
Bus services 21, 22, 28, 28B, 29 and 81 also serve High West Street, adjacent to the Civic Centre.
If you would like more information please email: gateshead@neptug.org.uk
Hello, I’m 1st year PhD student at Newcastle Univeristy and I’m interested in attending the meeting.
This an introduction to my research:
Neurodivergent Experiences of Public Transport and the Built Environment: A Participatory Study in the North East of England
How might a better understanding of neurodivergent perspectives help to improve the design and implementation of public transport networks and the related built environment? This research explores how neurodivergent people experience public transport in the North East, adopting a participatory, co-creation approach with a focus on visual methods and the potential use of WhatsApp as a data collection platform. The Principal Investigator, who is neurodivergent (autistic and dyslexic), brings lived experience to the research, ensuring a reflexive and inclusive approach. WhatsApp is being considered due to its ability to share real-time photos, messages, voice notes, annotated images, and GPS locations, allowing co-researchers to document their experiences in accessible and flexible ways.
The research is grounded in the relational geography of disability, which builds upon the social model by emphasising that disability is not an inherent individual characteristic but shaped by interactions with social and physical environments, where barriers create exclusion. This framework incorporates geographical awareness and affect theory, exploring how both external stimuli and internal senses shape emotions and influence behaviour.
An initial workshop was conducted with the Tyneside and Northumberland Mind Triple A group (a community of autistic and ADHD adults), which the Principal Investigator has been part of since its inception in March 2023. The discussion explored co-researchers’ reasons for using public transport compared to car use, their experiences, and the suitability of proposed research methods, expanding on personal reflections and literature. In the coming months, a second workshop is intended be held with a spin-off social group from the North East Autism Society’s Diverse Pathways programme. Future workshops will engage similar groups and individuals, potentialy alongside collaboration with organisations providing travel training for ‘higher support needs’ neurodivergent individuals. In these cases, go-along interviews could be used to capture real-time experiences of navigating transport and the built environment.
By centring neurodivergent perspectives and co-researcher input, this study aims to inform more inclusive transport policies and urban planning strategies. It contributes to theoretical discussions on disability and mobility by demonstrating how relational geographies and affect theory enhance understandings of accessibility, autonomy, and exclusion in the built environment.
Hi, thank you for your interest. I believe we emailed you on 23/03. It may have gone into your junk/spam folder. It’ll be from gateshead@neptug.org.uk
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