Improving Transportation for Those with Disabilities a Focus for Startups

By Guest Blogger Megan Totka, Chief Editor,ChamberofCommerce.com

If historians give this period a label, they might call it the “Startup Era.” In earlier times, most startup news was relegated to the business pages of your local newspaper orThe Wall Street Journal, today a wide variety of startups make it into the front-page headlines.

And some of the most notable startups in recent years have been in the transportation industry: think Uber and Lyft, for two familiar examples.

Articles in the popular press on the exploits of Uber, for example, swing from praise for the company’s innovative business model, to controversial, for its dust-ups with local governing agencies. Legacy taxi companies hate it and it’s banned outright in some countries and cities.

Another area where Uber and Lyft have received some bad press is in their ability to serve the disabled community. There are stories about drivers (who are typically private contractors) refusing to pick up people in wheelchairs and blind passengers with service animals.

Enlarging the adapted car rental fleet

However, ambitious entrepreneurs are always looking to find solutions to problems and the perceived problem between the hot peer-to-peer startups like Uber and Lyft and the disabled community has definitely created an opportunity.

Paris-based Wheeliz is using the peer-to-peer model to connect disabled individuals in wheelchairs with wheelchair-adapted cars. It’s the idea of Charlotte de Vilmorin who has spent her entire life in a wheelchair. She told Tech Times that there are some 100,000 privately owned adapted cars in France, but owners don’t need to use them every day.

Apply the peer-to-peer strategy to that situation and you have a fleet of rental cars for people in wheelchairs as well as an extra income stream for the car owners. The startup already has 120 cars in its program as well as about 900 registered users. Vilmorin also has plans to quickly roll her startup out in other countries, which is a smart tactic in today’s business climate.

Bringing private jets to the disabled

Things are changing in the airline industry. Talk to virtually any group of frequent airline travelers – able or disabled – and they’ll have horror stories to relate about crowded conditions, cancellations and sometimes spotty customer service.Disabled travelers always need to do some careful planning to overcome the many challenges.

Over the last decade or so, these air-travel headaches have created opportunities for some savvy entrepreneurs. Once seen solely as the realm of the super-rich, a wide variety of membership and rental strategies has brought private charter jet travel to a much wider swatch of business professionals, families and individuals.

One of these companies, Stratos Jet Charters, sees a business opportunity by catering to the elderly and disabled in this segment of the air travel industry. They are marketing to this group in part by contrasting the endless lines at commercial airports to the various luxury touches air travelers enjoy when flying via private charter jet.

Getting up and around

So far we’ve talked about getting around the city and around the world, but before we leave the topic of startups looking to meet the transportation needs of the disabled community, we need to mention UPnRIDE.

This Israeli startup is developing a Segway-like personal transportation device that will allow many quadriplegics to get around their homes and offices in an upright position. With sitting now labeled as “the new smoking,” this device could bring significant health benefits to a significant segment of the disabled community.

I don’t see the rate of startups easing up too much in the coming years, so keep your eyes open, scan the headlines, and look for young companies working hard to bring additional innovations designed to improve transportation for disabled individuals.

About the Guest Blogger

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com.ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources and business news. Megan has several years of experience on the topics of small business marketing, copywriting, SEO, online conversions and social media. Megan spends much of her time establishing new relationships for ChamberofCommerce.com, publishing weekly newsletters educating small business on the importance of web presence, and contributing to a number of publications on the web. Megan can be reached at megan@chamberofcommerce.com. Website:www.chamberofcommerce.com