A Study on Physical Environment of Expressway Rest Areas for People with Disability - Focused on the Rest Areas along the Gyeongbu Expressway -

고속도로 휴게소의 지체장애인을 위한 물리적 환경에 대한 검토 및 개선방안 - 경부고속도로상의 휴게소들을 중심으로 -

The number of people utilizing expressway system in our country has been increasing steadily, and modern expressway rest area is becoming a cultural facility. At the same time, the average age of our population is rising fast and social interest toward Universal Design is increasing. Therefore, rest areas need to be equipped with barrier-free physical environment for various users irrelevant to age and physical ability. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the application of universal design in common space of expressway rest areas, find out what kind of related problems they currently have based on the findings, and provide suggestions for improving the physical environment so various users could use the facilities comfortably without discriminational problems. The scope of this research were focused on the application of Universal Design principle toward common space of 17 rest areas located along the Gyeongbu Expressway. The result of the research shows that the application of Universal Design toward those rest areas are unsatisfactory. It turns out that the parties who apply the various barrier-free system to meet Universal Design principles do not consider nor understand throughly how the system works for the users who rely on it.