The Design and Testing of Hand Held Devices to Assist Persons with Disabilities to Navigate Bus Services

Author Information

Daniel Fitch

Abstract/Description

Many transit systems around the U.S. are using global positioning systems to track their buses. Some of these systems provide bus locations in real-time on web maps. With internet integration becoming common in portable electronics, this research project analyzed the opportunity to utilize mass market devices to assist the general public and persons with disabilities to access and navigate fixed route bus services. This study has taken advantage of the state of the art automatic vehicle location systems aboard the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority and MetroWest (Boston) Regional Transit Authority bus services, Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping services and Microsoft MapPoint Web Services to design, build and test hand held device interfaces and powerful web applications on personal computers for transit customer information systems. These technologies can provide all consumers, particularly transit consumers with disabilities, with improved access to mainstream bus services.

Note on the Author

Daniel Fitch is a senior majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. This paper is the result of research conducted through the Adrian Tinsley Program under direction from Dr. Uma Shama and Mr. Lawrence Harman. This research is a continuing project that will be expanded into an Honors Thesis and will be presented in the National Conference of Undergraduate Research in April 2008.

Recommended Citation

Fitch, Daniel (2008). The Design and Testing of Hand Held Devices to Assist Persons with Disabilities to Navigate Bus Services. Undergraduate Review, 4, 9-12.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol4/iss1/6

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