This document proposes a crowd-sourced mobile and web application called Transit Tracker to provide real-time public transportation arrival information. It aims to increase ridership by making schedules more accessible and reducing wait times. Users would report bus locations to receive arrival times in return. The system would integrate this crowd-sourced data with static schedule data to provide customizable, accessible arrival predictions on phones and online. It has the potential to improve health, accessibility and reduce traffic by encouraging more public transit use.

1. German Greiner
Steven Hernandez
Kevin Putman
Arash Tadayon

2. Visual Recognition
General Public View

3. Visual Recognition
Visually Impaired View

4. Visual Recognition
Inaccessible Schedules

5. Scheduling & Usage
Empty Bus (AZ)
Waste of precious tax dollars
Traditional transit
schedule in sprawling
cities tend to dissuade
customers
Leads to

6. Scheduling & Usage
Phoenix, AZ
Leads to
Inaccessible Public Transport
Congested Roads
• City Pollution and related diseases
• Cities become inaccessible
Leads to

7. Health Issues
Record Low: -27°
Bus Stop (Chicago, IL)
Record High: 122°
Bus Stop (Phoenix, AZ)
Do YOU want to wait for a bus in
Extreme Cold Extreme Heat

8. Why Transit Tracker & Why Now?
• Recession has increased riders on public transportation systems.
– It’s time to keep these riders from going back to personal
transport
• But recession has taken away funds from the transportation
agencies.
– Reduced routes and maintenance could affect the ridership
negatively.
• A technology like Transit Tracker
– Uses social technology without any infrastructural cost
– Portability to other metropolitans
– Increased Accessibility

9. Overview
• Problem Definition
– Visual Recognition
– Scheduling & Usage
– Health & Welfare
• Why Now
• Crowd-sourcing
• System Overview
• Solution Design
• Accessibility
• User Experiences
• Business Viability
– Technology
– Economics
• Solution
• Questions

10. Crowd Sourcing Location Data
• Users contribute data to get data in return
– Users report location of a bus, whether they are
on it, or have seen it
– We all use Wikipedia; we swear by Wikipedia
• Application of social technology to
computing (commuting)
• Uses many low cost social sensors in place
of expensive infrastructural solutions

11. Static Organizational Data
• General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)
Routes Stops Timing Distances
Relational
Database

12. System Overview
Crowd Sourcing Controller
Smart Phone
App
Web
Service
Website Interface
on PC
Bus Tracker
Service
Updater
Service
Database Population
Script
GTFS
Validation
GTFS
Archive
Client
Request
Client
Request
Service
Request
Create A New
City Database
Insert into
script
Query Crowd Data
SQL Database Controller
…
Connection Stream of
Location
Legend
Read/Write
Read Only
Write Only
Client Entry Point
Backend Software

13. Accessibility
• Providing equal access to transit for all
commuters
• Accomplished by:
– Hardware and software that the user
already possesses
– Customizable user themes (website)
– Informing users via map and text
Phones
Computers

14. User Experience
Website: Schedule Request

15. User Experience
Website: Next 5 Arrivals

16. User Experience
Website: Next 7 Days

17. Accessibility
User Themes: Mozilla Firefox

18. Accessibility
User Themes: Internet Explorer 8

19. Accessibility
User Themes: Internet Explorer 9

20. Accessibility
• Dynamic styling options
• Why?
– Developers should take all
users into consideration
– Assistive Technologies are
extremely expensive
User Themes

21. User Experience
• Accessible schedule information
• Incentive to contribute to the
crowd is getting near real-time
information in return
• Validation algorithm integrates
data from multiple social sensors
into reliable location data
Mobile

22. Mobile Demonstration
User Experience:

23. Business Viability
• Cheap or free distribution of apps
• Platforms for advertising
– Webpage
– Mobile
– Embedded advertisement revenue
• Social collection of real-time traffic information
– A platform for collecting city-wide congestion map
Economics

24. Business Viability
• Incentive System
• Games
• Drivers can be given free phones with an app
that keeps tracking alive
• User-based service quality assurance
– Users report their experiences with buses
– Our business submits reports to transit agencies in
exchange for data
Crowd-Sourcing

25. Business Viability
• Portability
– Adaptable to any city with minimal changes
• Require GTFS archives of the city, which can also be
collected through planned social mapping
• Portability to third world countries
– Smart phone environments
• Can be adapted from Android to Windows Phone 7,
iPhone, Blackberry
– Any mobile client device
• Tablet PC, iPad, PDA
Technology

26. Solution
• Visual Recognition
– User Themes
– Mobile & site tell user near real-time information
• Usage
– Free for users
– More public transit commuters
• Health & Welfare
– Reduce wait times in harsh weather

27. Question & Answer

28. User Experience
Mobile: Routes Tab, All Routes

29. User Experience
Mobile: Route Tab, Nearby Routes

30. User Experience
Mobile: Stops Tab, Detect Nearby

31. User Experience
Mobile: Route Map, w/ Crowd-Sourcing

32. User Experience
Mobile: Select Route Direction

33. User Experience
Mobile: Stop Location

34. GTFS Coverage

35. Future Research
• Trip planner
• Using shortest path algorithms to map all routes between
two points
• Incentive systems to encourage usage
• User accounts
– Allow users to save trips
– Allow users to save chosen theme in a more
reliable way

36. GTFS Archive
• Required .txt
agency, stops, routes, trips, stop_times, calendar
• Optional .txt
calendar_dates, fare_attributes, fare_rules,
shapes, frequencies, transfers

37. Affiliations
valleymtro.org
GTFS Data Contributor
engineering.asu.edu cubic.asu.edu
imaginecup.us
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