Barrier-free travel

Passengers with special mobility needs want to get all relevant information about departure times and necessary transfer procedures. This information must be kept up-to-date and understandable before, along the way, as well as after the journey. Significant information should be conveyed optically, acoustically and/or tactilely. More specifically, new travel assistance approaches for passengers with special needs, a barrier-free travel experience, as well as a feedback mechanism aimed at the continuous improvement of public transportation accessibility, will be developed.

With a smartphone app, the passenger with special mobility needs gets assistance in trip planning. At the beginning of his planning, he enters the start point, the destination, and his special mobility requirements into the smartphone (e.g. need for driver assistance). The smartphone app sends a request for a barrier-free trip to the Intermodal Transport Information System (ITIS). Based on the end points of the requested trip, the ITIS performs barrier-free routing.

The ITIS receives this decision as a response and, if the connection protection is declined, can initiate a re-routing. The barrier-free route, compiled by the ITIS as a final result, is sent to the smartphone app. There it is displayed and serves as input for barrier-free navigation along the trip chain.

An additional feature of the app is the request for bus driver support to board the vehicle. This attribute is entered as part of the barrier-free trip request and is sent to the ITIS. From the ITIS, this request is relayed to the ITCS, where the corresponding vehicle is identified. Via the existing data link between the ITCS and the vehicle, the request for driver assistance is sent to the bus. The driver is informed via his display as a locationbased service when the vehicle approaches the respective station.

With the app, the passenger gets on-trip assistance. Whenever service irregularities (e.g. delays, cancellations, missed connections) are detected in the ITCS, this error information is forwarded to the passenger by the ITIS. For special needs passengers, this information is automatically transformed into a video stream displaying this error information in sign language. This information is made available for deaf and hearing impaired passengers on their smartphones.

In addition to just following a static pre-planned route, dynamic re-routing is an integral part of the system. Using information available in the ITIS, each barrier-free route will be monitored. Whenever a deviation is detected, re-routing will be automatically triggered and the passenger informed about alternatives. Last but not least, during the trip, the passenger can issue a stop request along with a request for driver assistance at any time. This information is sent to the vehicle with an IP-based communication link so that it can be displayed on the driver’s interface.

The main results for INIT will be the defined interfaces between the ITIS and ITCS for the requests of connection protection and driver assistance. These interfaces can also be used for pickup and drop-off requests in demand responsive transportation systems. The interfaces between smartphones and the vehicles for direct communication will be defined as well. All interfaces are based on the German VDV431 standard (TRIAS) and will be available for our customers at the conclusion of the project.