StopInfo enhances OneBusAway

Shameless reprint of press release:


http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/08/18/stopinfo-for-onebusaway-app-makes-buses-more-usable-for-blind-riders/

StopInfo for OneBusAway app makes buses more usable for blind riders
Michelle Ma
News and Information
Posted under: Engineering, News Releases, Research, Technology
It's a daily routine for many transit riders in the Seattle area: Pull
out your smartphone, check the OneBusAway app, then decide whether you
need to sprint to the bus stop or can afford that last sip of coffee.
The application, developed at the University of Washington, uses
real-time data to track when your bus is actually going to arrive.
 Click to expand
Jeff Muceus, Flickr
But for many blind and low-vision riders, knowing when the bus will
arrive isn't always enough. Crucial information like where the stop is
in relation to the intersection and whether there is a shelter or
bench sometimes can make the difference between an independent commute
and a frustrating experience.

UW computer scientists have created a program called StopInfo that
integrates with OneBusAway and provides specific information on
location, safety features and stop closures for each bus stop in King
County. In particular, it seeks to collect and share information that
blind people have identified as important when they ride the bus. It
relies on bus riders using the OneBusAway application to update and
provide information about each stop.

"We're interested in having OneBusAway be as useful for as many people
as possible. In this case, we are looking at how we make it more
user-friendly for blind and low-vision riders," said Alan Borning, a
UW professor of computer science and engineering who was involved in
creating the original OneBusAway app.
A team of UW graduate students and researchers, in collaboration with
King County Metro, launched StopInfo last spring and has completed an
initial study looking at its effectiveness for blind and low-vision
users. The study and related paper, which will be presented and
published at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special
Interest Group on Accessible Computing annual conference in October,
found that StopInfo is generally helpful for blind riders and can
promote spontaneous and unfamiliar travel.
Its intent also is to offer more details about bus stops to all users,
including when a stop is temporarily closed, researchers said.
"Ideally, we'd like everyone who's using OneBusAway to use StopInfo,"
said Cynthia Bennett, a UW research scientist involved with the
project. "One reoccurring problem blind users have is it's not always
clear where the bus stop is."

Each month, about 350,000 people in the Puget Sound area use
OneBusAway, a free service launched in 2009. Two former UW doctoral
students created the app with Borning, and last summer Sound Transit
took over its operation. The real-time updating service also runs in
Atlanta and Tampa, Florida. New York City, Washington, D.C., Detroit
and other cities use variations of the service.
 Click to expand
U of Washington

StopInfo shows details about a bus stop in the OneBusAway app.
In the OneBusAway app, users choose a stop, then click on the
information icon at the top right. That takes the user to a StopInfo
page about that stop. At the most basic level, each has information
about the stop's position from the intersection, sign type, and
whether it has a schedule holder or a shelter. This data is provided
by King County Metro and verified by users of the application. Users
can also note other features of the stop such as lighting, seating and
whether the bus sign is close to the curb.

The system chooses which information to display for each stop
according to a majority voting system by OneBusAway users. A field is
considered verified when it receives 75 percent of the same vote by
users, with a minimum of three votes.

Some stops include comments added by users who sign in through a
Google or Facebook account. This could be notes about uneven pavement
or an unusual configuration for boarding the bus.

In the initial StopInfo study, the research team asked six blind or
low-vision participants to use the app for five weeks and record what
features they liked as well as information about their bus trips,
familiarity with routes and confidence while riding the bus. The team
integrated feedback from the blind participants and now is seeking
more participation among transit users to make the program robust on
all routes in King County.
"The success of this program depends in part on how fully the
community participates," said Caitlin Bonnar, a UW doctoral student in
computer science and engineering.
StopInfo is currently only part of the OneBusAway application for
iPhones and related devices, but the researchers plan to expand it for
use on Android and Windows phones. They initially deployed it on this
platform because it's the operating system most often used by blind
and low-vision people and has a number of accessibility tools like
VoiceOver already built in.
The research team that also includes UW doctoral student Megan
Campbell is now interviewing a broader stakeholder base - including
bus drivers, orientation and mobility instructors and additional blind
users - to make the app more useful for blind riders. They also plan
to expand the app's capabilities to help people with mobility
impairments get better information about each stop.
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the UW.