Transport for London's iBus system
David Crawford investigates initiatives and issues in travel information for disabled passengers.
The EU-supported ‘
Wienerlinien, the public transport operator for the Austrian capital of Vienna, is planning an advanced version of its acoustic POPTIS (Pre-On-Post-Trip-Information-System) designed to encourage the blind and visually impaired to use its network. The database, which carries details of all possible trips, pre-tested by typical users and mobility consultants, is accessible on the www.wienerlinien.at website in a special barrier-free section, with files designed for screenreader programmes to allow text-to-speech output.
Users can navigate pre-trip on their home computers, and during their journeys via a pocket CD player or mobile phone with the journey pre-loaded. The system aims to explain each stage of a journey, including interchanges, which users can store for future use; and integrates real-time arrivals (and, for wheelchair users, alerts as to whether the next bus is low-floor). A new version, planned for demonstration at the 2012
The UK company Screenreader, which specialises in making computers and smartphones more accessible for the blind and partially-sighted, has developed the Georgie app for guiding users countrywide to their nearest bus stop; for telling them when the next scheduled bus is due; and announcing stops as these come up during their journey. It updates timetable information via external data feeds, but does not offer real-time advice on how services are running. It also enables users to record details of landmarks and hazards found on journeys.
| Disability | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Blind | 0.4 | |
| Poor vision | 1.5 | |
| Deaf | 0.1 | |
| Hard or hearing | 6.0 | Proportions of people needing specific help with travel information as reported by the CARDIAC project |
| Wheelchair user | 0.4 | |
| Otherwise mobility impaired | 5.0 | |
| | | |
Greater Paris public transport operator
The Frankfurt public transport operator
For the deaf, whose travel problems are often less widely publicised, Hungarian startup MSL (Mobile Sign Language) Accessibility has broken new ground with its jel-M sign language travel aid, introduced at the July 2012 DeafNation World Expo in Las Vegas, US. It starts with the premise that sign-language is the ‘native language’ of the deaf and offers videos via mobile applications. It says pilots in Eastern Europe have met with positive feedback and now hopes to generate interest in the North American market.
Drivers too
For drivers as well as public transport users, disabled UK entrepreneur Gary McFarlane has developed theEarly offers will cover parking, refuelling, and rail and airport access. In a scheme being developed with four central London local authorities, drivers will be able navigate their way to a parking space or garage.
They will be able to send advance warnings requesting help and indicate imminent arrival by passing through a geofence, with the Assist-Mi technology interfacing with the operator’s control system.
McFarlane told
Another category of drivers needing support consists of the ageing, who may be thinking of giving up their cars on grounds of cost or safety, but have grown unfamiliar with public transport.
The elderly are being targeted by the 2012-2015 EU-supported Assistant project launched in July this year to help ‘senior travellers’ navigate in towns.
Starting on the premise that many of today’s retired people are familiar with using home computers, laptops and the internet, the aim is to equip them to plan, on-line and in detail, a personal multi-stage, multi-modal journey by public transport, and then support them during the journey.
Pilots are in the planning stage in Austria, France and Spain. The intended outcome is a smartphone app using proven existing technology as far as possible and supported in use by a subscription-based maintenance and updating service sold by the supplier.
Underlying issues
Alongside these and equally welcome initiatives, some important underlying issues are gaining attention. The market is huge, fragmented and not necessarily clearly categorised. A 2011 report by the Vienna Institute for Transport Logistics Management questions the assumption that visually-impaired people have the same needs as the blind. “Measures taken for the blind do not help partially sighted people as the latter still rely on their eyesight while using public transport, whereas blind people have to replace this sense. People with impaired sight have specific mobility-related needs, which deserve more attention,” says the report, which also suggests that treating needs more specifically could save transport operators money.Not all initiatives, some intensively researched by industrial and academic joint projects, secure the finance necessary to get them to market. A 2012 report from the EU-supported ‘CARDIAC’ project (Coordination Action in R&D in Accessible & Assistive ICT) warns: ‘For industrial partners, the considerable cost of converting a prototype to a production item has proved prohibitive.’ The CARDIAC report calls for knowledge built to be made generally available if no product results from any project.
Thirdly, there are risks of over-specialisation and the production of too much ‘kit’. Not all products can sit on a smartphone, and smartphone apps could be more versatile if the databases they access were better designed. CARDIAC report co-author Dr John Gill foresees a trend towards more inclusively-planned solutions. (A good existing example is Transport for London’s iBus, whose on-board ‘next stop’ audio visual displays and announcements are designed to make bus travel easier for all, including visually or hearing impaired passengers and those with learning disabilities).
At a railway station, for example, Gill envisages the passenger using a smartphone to access a database giving scheduled and predicted arrival and the platform number. Provided that the database is designed from the outset for dual-format operation, the information could be displayed visually, with an inbuilt audio alternative also giving guidance to the correct platform.
