Plan a step-free route
Pick two places and see the journey broken into legs: which stations are step-free, how far you roll at each end, and what gradient and surface to expect on arrival.
Walking legs are straight-line estimates with an allowance for street layout, not turn-by-turn directions. We hold detailed measurements for the places themselves, not for every pavement between them, so any leg we cannot assess is marked unknown rather than guessed.
What the planner checks
Why step-free routing is different from ordinary routing
A standard map application optimises for distance or time. It will happily send you down a flight of steps, across a kerb with no dropped section, or into a station whose only platform access is an escalator. For a wheelchair user, a route that is two minutes shorter but ends at a step is not shorter at all — it is impossible.
Planning a step-free journey means treating the barriers as hard constraints rather than minor costs. That changes the shape of the answer: the best route is often longer, uses a different line, and involves a bus where the map would have suggested a train. It also means the planning has to happen before you leave, because discovering the barrier on arrival is the failure mode this whole field exists to prevent.
How to plan a journey in four steps
Start at the destination, not the origin. Check the entrance first: if the front door has steps, find out where the accessible entrance is, because it is often on a different street and that changes which station you want. Our profiles name the accessible entrance wherever the venue publishes one.
Next, work backwards to the nearest genuinely step-free station, and check the distance from that station to the door. Six hundred metres on smooth pavement is a short roll; the same distance over cobbles with a 6% gradient is a different journey entirely. Then confirm the station is step-free all the way through, not just at the entrance — many stations have a lift to the concourse but a gap or step from platform to train.
Finally, plan the fallback. Lifts break, and they are usually announced only on the day. Knowing in advance which bus route runs the same way, or whether accessible taxis can be hailed rather than booked, is what turns a broken lift from a ruined day into a twenty-minute detour.
What gradient and surface numbers actually mean
Gradient matters more than distance for most manual wheelchair users. Up to about 5% is comfortable for most people. Between 5% and 8% is noticeable and tiring, and typically needs either a companion or a powered chair on a long stretch. Above 8%, a ramp stops being usable independently for many people, and above 10% it becomes genuinely unsafe to descend without braking assistance.
Surface changes the effort as much as slope does. Smooth asphalt or polished stone rolls easily. Cobblestones — particularly the large irregular setts common in historic European centres — transmit heavy vibration, catch small front castors and can be genuinely painful for someone with a spinal injury or chronic pain condition. Gravel is worse still: front castors dig in and steering becomes unreliable.
This is why we record both figures separately rather than collapsing them into a single "accessible" label. The same 300-metre approach can be trivial or impossible depending on which combination you meet, and only you know which of those variables matters most for your chair, your strength and your day.
Planning an accessible route: common questions
How accurate is the step-free route planner?
The places at each end are described from recorded profiles, and station step-free status comes from the operators. The walking legs between them are straight-line estimates with an allowance for street layout, so treat them as a realistic time budget rather than turn-by-turn directions. Any leg we cannot assess is labelled unknown instead of guessed.
What gradient is too steep for a wheelchair?
Up to roughly 5% is comfortable for most users. From 5% to 8% is tiring and often needs a companion or a powered chair. Above 8% many people cannot manage a long stretch independently, and above 10% descending becomes unsafe without braking assistance.
Why does the planner say a route is not step-free when the map shows a station nearby?
Proximity is not access. A station can be a hundred metres away and still have no lift, or have a lift to the concourse but a step from platform to train. We only count a station as step-free when the operator states it is, and we flag close-but-inaccessible stations explicitly so you do not plan around them by mistake.
Can I plan a route between two different cities?
Not yet. The planner works within a single city, because that is where we hold the station-level and venue-level detail needed to be useful. Intercity journeys depend on rail assistance services that need to be arranged directly with the operator.
Every city guide lists its profiled places with transport notes, so you can pick your two ends before planning the middle.