Lauren's story: "I was mentally and physically exhausted"
Lauren, 34, likes to get around by bike where possible, in the North West where she lives. If there’s no safe place to lock a bike or the destination is far, she uses public transport. Lauren also relies on the tram and train to commute to work 2-4 times per week.
Lauren often finds it difficult to travel as things don’t always go to plan. She struggles to make journeys with limited information about disruptions on her tram network. She was recently impacted by closures on her route into the city centre:
"The information on the transport company’s website stated alternative bus travel was available into the city, but there was information missing such as which stand get the bus from and where to get off to continue my journey. Once I got to the bus station, I was incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of bus stands, the poor communication of when each stand’s next bus was due and from not knowing where I should get the bus from. As a result, I started to have a meltdown and panic, leading to me just getting any bus so I could sit down and get out of the bus station. Eventually I navigated myself home instead, using a travel app. By the time I got home, I was mentally and physically exhausted, which continued to the next day."
Like many other autistic people, Lauren struggled with the lack of necessary detail in diversion information, causing overwhelm, distress and exhaustion. Challenging travel like this can take hours or days to recover from. As Lauren mentions, she also had to abandon her journey and prioritise escaping the difficult environment. It’s not always possible to change plans, or the impact might mean missing a work meeting, medical appointment, or leisure activity.
Good information to plan ahead can improve Lauren’s travel experience, but this is just one aspect of her journey which is challenging. Many autistic people we surveyed described high anxiety before travel, made worse by previous negative experiences and anticipation of likely difficult journeys ahead. Lauren similarly describes feeling anxiety about the possibility that transport will be full or overcrowded while travelling to and from work. She cannot cope on crowded services, so regularly extends her commute by an extra hour each way:
"An overcrowded train or tram would result in me being in close proximity of someone, there would be lots of noise, and I’d have to sit next to someone for the whole journey. When services are full or crowded, I will avoid travelling and wait for later options. This means I have to travel an hour early so that I don’t get the busy tram to work, and have to wait for an extra hour after arriving in the city centre before I can take the tram home. This happens on a daily basis."
Lauren has also had positive travel experiences, enabled by services which use warm lighting, display capacity information for each carriage and relay the rules of quiet coaches over the tannoy. Promoting correct use of these carriages ensures that they remain safe spaces for autistic people like Lauren to sit without overwhelm. Having an escape from some of the sensory stressors while travelling can also help autistic people to recover from challenges they may have already encountered on their journeys.
To make public transport accessible for her, Lauren feels it would help if there was:
- More care and consideration taken in communicating information on delays and diversions, particularly when the mode of travel is changed
- More regular cleaning on train services to ensure hygiene
- Communicating the rules of quiet coaches to passengers throughout the journey
- Better consideration of environment design of train interiors
This case study is part of a series from our recent research project: Empowering Autistic Travel. The project was led by autistic people and collected data from thousands of autistic people, as well as their families and supporters, gathering insight about the many challenges faced when using public transport in the UK. Here, we share some of their stories, which highlight personal challenges, the impact they have and the strategies that would help. You can read other case studies from this series and explore the full research findings in our research report.
