PathAble

PathAble applies Social Practice Theory to study daily travel through three connected dimensions (materials, competences and meanings): the physical, social and digital mobility environment (materials); the sensory, cognitive and emotional skills needed to plan and complete a trip (competences); and the personal meaning attached to safety, autonomy and care (meanings). Sensory ethnographies, walk-along interviews, photovoice and mapping workshops collect evidence for this framework in three cities, following a Diagnose-Frame-Co-create approach that treats autistic citizens, caregivers, municipal planners and transport operators as equal partners. In Barcelona, the project addresses active mobility routes; in Brussels, home-to-school corridors; and in Sassari, GIS-based mapping supports the design of wayfinding tools in a low-density setting. A minimum recruitment quota of 50% women shapes the results. Findings from the three cities are compared to build a shared evaluation framework.

PathAble expects to deliver a validated neuro-inclusive design framework for multimodal mobility planning, along with tested interventions, open datasets and evaluation tools that cities and transport operators can reuse. The project links sensory accessibility with climate adaptation, showing how measures such as shading and greening can reduce the heat, glare and noise that often drive autistic travellers to avoid public transport. By generating comparable evidence across three cities with different governance models, PathAble aims to inform local mobility plans and support wider recognition of autistic women and caregivers in transport research and policy. In the long term, the project seeks to give other European cities a replicable model for making urban mobility calmer, more predictable and accessible for neurodivergent citizens.