Transportation
How a 'Smart' Public Transit System Can Better Serve Riders With Disabilities
A team of researchers is designing a system to ensure riders are at the right stop at the right time.
Accessibility for public transit riders with visual impairments and other disabilities has come a long way since Peter Cantisani rode New York City’s subway and buses in the 1980s. Back then, he says, you just had to memorize the station’s layout to get to your destination.
Today, Cantisani, who has been blind all his life, benefits from audio announcements, various transit apps, and the GPS in his phone to get from his current home in Alameda, California, to the Amazon office where he works some 40 miles away. Still, there are things that throw him off—like finding the correct stop at a busy bus station. “They don’t always stop where they say they are going to stop,” he says.