Date: 9 November 2017
From: Team Lucent
To: Land Transport Authority
Cc: Brad Blackstone
RE: Enhancement of Commuting Experience for the
Visually Impaired
Dear Sir,
I am Claudia Liu, an undergraduate
from the sustainable infrastructure engineering programme at Singapore
Institute of Technology. I am writing on behalf of my team, Team Lucent, to address an issue regarding the
public bus transport system in response to the letter of authorisation. My team
found out that visually impaired commuters are facing problems when taking the
public bus alone. They do not know which buses are arriving at the bus stop and
whether the buses that they are on have reached their destination.
Our research showed that the
mentioned issue is increasing pressing given the anticipated increase in
visually impaired commuters. We have developed two solutions to enable the
visually impaired commuters, when travelling alone, to board the right bus and
alight at the right stop every time.
Attached in this e-mail is the
report of our research with details of our solutions. My team and I would like
to express our gratitude to you for taking your time to read the proposal.
Should you require more information, please do not hesitate to contact me at 1700123@sit.singaporetech.edu.sg.
Yours Sincerely,
Claudia Liu
Singapore Institute of Technology
Executive Summary
This report was
written in response to the two challenges faced by the visually impaired commuters
when using the existing public bus transport system. Specifically, knowing
which buses are arriving at the bus stop and if the buses that they are on have
reached their destination.
The objective of
this report is to propose to the Land Transport Authority the implementation of
solutions which use voice-operated technology into our public bus transport
system. Voice-operated technology is recommended because the visually impaired commuters
heavily depend on their sense of hearing. Hence, it is the most viable form of
technology to assist them.
In this report, two
solutions have been developed by Team Lucent, to address the above-mentioned
challenges. A comparison between both solutions and evaluation of possible
setbacks have also been included.
1 Introduction
For the past 13
years, Singapore has implemented several measures at public areas to assist
people with disabilities, such as braille in lifts and tactile paving at
traffic junctions (Society for Physically Disabled, 2014). Despite efforts made,
the visually impaired commuters travelling alone still face difficulties
transiting via public buses.
The two main
problems faced by the visually impaired are: 1) knowing which buses are
arriving at the bus stop and 2) whether the buses that they are on have reached
their destination (Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped, 2017).
Their predicament was reported by Spykerman (2016), who described a visually
impaired undergraduate, who recalled incidents when the bus captain forgot to
inform her that she had reached her destination, which caused her to make
detours.
Statistics on visual
impairment in Singapore for gauging the extent of the problem are limited. An
estimate derived using the study results of Wong et al. (2012) and the data
from the Census of Population 2010 (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2011)
show that about 175,000 adults who are above 40 years old are visually
impaired. The number is likely to increase since "more people are at risk
of age-related visual impairments as our population ages" (Ministry of
Culture, Community and Youth, 2017). This is a substantial number.
The expected rise in the visually impaired warrants
attention to ensure they are able to board the right public bus and alight at
their desired stop all the time when travelling by themselves. It is timely to look
into this issue as the Ministry of Transport has planned to make the public
transportation system more inclusive (Ministry of Communications and Information, 2017).
3 Purpose Statement
This report proposes to the Land Transport Authority the
adoption of “Bus Buddy” mobile application to enhance the commuting experiences
of the visually impaired and encourage inclusivity in the design of public
transportation system.
4 Proposed Solutions
Two ideas are proposed to improve the commuting experience
of the visually impaired when travelling alone: 1) "Bus Buddy" mobile
application and 2) the Lucent Bus Stop (LBS). Their features and functions are
described below.
4.1 "Bus
Buddy" Mobile Application
There are a few
local application-based initiatives that help the visually impaired to travel
using public bus, namely, Travel Assistant for the Visually Impaired and the
Elderly (TrAVEl) (Neo, 2015), ICT-Travel (Salim, 2016) and Travel Assistant for
the Visually Impaired (TAVI) (Tote Board, 2017) (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Two local application-based
initiatives
(Retrieved from The Straits Times and
The SMU Blog)
Publications on
these initiatives did not include how the visually impaired would be assisted
when there are multiple buses arriving at the bus stop and when they are alone (Figure
2). These initiatives are unlikely to address this aspect since their aim is to
enable the visually impaired to travel independently. The proposed "Bus
Buddy" solution aims to bridge this gap, thereby enabling the visually
impaired to board the right bus and alight at their desired stop every time.
Figure 2. Challenges with existing initiatives
(Retrieved from The Straits Times)
The
"Bus Buddy" mobile application consists of two components:
a.
"Bus
Buddy” is a voice-operated bus service advisory mobile application that
interacts with the visually-impaired user and processes his/her requests. It
tracks and correlates the user's location against a map complete with
information on bus stops and landmarks. It also taps into the Bus Information System
(BIS) for real-time bus status.
b.
A
transceiver-cum-display unit on each bus that transmits bus information (e.g.
location) and receives alerts notifying the bus captain of visually impaired
commuters at the next bus stop.
A simplified conceptual user - “Bus Buddy” interaction
process is shown in Figure 3.
Figure
3. Simplified conceptual user
- “Bus Buddy” interaction process
4.2 Lucent
Bus Stop
The
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has piloted a smart bus stop initiative
where commuters can enjoy free Wi-Fi or even download an e-Book while waiting
for their bus to arrive (Saiidi, 2017). While these initiatives are mainly for
the general public, this initiative can be further expanded to include
additional features to aid the visually impaired in their commuting experience.
The
Lucent Bus Stop (LBS) is a revised version of the smart bus stop initiative. The
LBS includes an interactive panel located in the bus shelter (see Appendix A)
and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display screen installed at the bus stop pole
(see Appendix B). The interactive panel consists of a touch screen Liquid Crystal
Device (LCD) display, an audio speaker and a real-time bus location system via
Global Positioning System (GPS). The lower part of the interactive panel is a
list of bus services available at the specific bus stop in braille.
Visually
impaired using the interactive panel would begin by pressing the ‘push-to-talk’
button. The interactive panel will prompt the user to input their destination
vocally (Figure 4). Upon receiving the user’s input, the interactive panel will
respond with the bus service that the user should take to get to his/her destination.
Figure 4. User
will press button and speak into the system the destination
When the panel prompts for a
confirmation, the user would tap his/her SG enabled concession card on the card
reader to confirm his/her selected choice (Figure 5).
Figure 5. User
confirm his choice by tapping his concession card on card reader
Upon confirmation, the audio speaker
will announce the selected bus service and the time taken to arrive at the bus
stop. Concurrently, the LED display will indicate the flagged down bus number,
together with a visually handicapped symbol (Figure 6), informing the bus
captain that a visually impaired would be boarding the bus. This allows the bus
captain to render necessary assistance.
Figure 6. Bus
flag down process
When the flagged down bus arrives at
the bus stop, the audio speaker will announce the bus number, notifying the visually impaired to board the bus (Figure
7). Once the bus left the bus bay, the system will be updated.
Figure 7. Interactive
panel informs the visually impaired to board the bus
5 Evaluation
Touchscreen technology is growing
rapidly and widely accepted as part of everyone lives. Solutions to the problem
has been thought through thoroughly by the team and are feasible. There may
still be some minor challenges to our solutions, however, with careful
planning, these challenges can be mitigated.
5.1 Return on Investment
There could be a concern to whether
the number of visually impaired commuters warrant the investment. This concern
has been mitigated under the proposed progressive implementation approach
starting with routes and bus services that have more visually impaired
commuters. The mobile application could be extended to include other users such
as tourists and those who are unfamiliar with the bus services and routes to
achieve greater usability.
5.2 User Acceptance
5.2.1 “Bus Buddy” Mobile Application
Users of "Bus Buddy" are
required to own a smart phone with an up-to-date operating system to ensure
that the application works smoothly. More importantly, they have to bear the
data usage cost. These cost-related concerns can be resolved by expanding the
scope of the current "public transport concession scheme for persons with
disabilities" to include subsidy for such expenses (Ministry of Social and
Family Development, n. d.).
5.2.2 Lucent Bus Stop
Since the interactive panel is
available for all to use, visually impaired commuters may need to wait for
their turn to use it. This issue can be managed through the phased
implementation to gauge the usage demand and cost-effective alternatives could
be considered if needed.
5.3 Longer Travel Time
There may be concerns with the additional time required in
travelling due to the requirement of the bus captain to aid the visually
impaired on boarding and alighting of the bus. This issue is similar to wheelchair
commuters. This issue, however, is generally accepted as a social norm by
majority and mitigated by the benefits that the visually impaired commuters
would gain.
6 Methodology
The team used both
primary and secondary research methods for our study. The team searched the
internet for relevant information and asked SAVH specific questions related to
this study.
6.1 Secondary Research
Online research on the visually impaired was conducted to
learn about their challenges (Collins, 2013, and Spykerman, 2016), the extent
of the problem (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2011, Ministry of Culture,
Community and Youth, 2017, and Wong et al., 2012), the local and foreign
initiatives launched to help them (Bennett, 2014, Metro, 2016, Neo, 2015,
Salic, 2017, Superala, 2014, and Tote Board, 2017) and their familiarity with
the technologies used - mobile and touchscreen technologies (Parderio, 2017 and
Roa, 2014). This study allows the problem statement and the strategies of
possible solutions for this assignment to be determined.
6.2 Primary Research
The team approached SAVH to gain deeper insights into the
challenges faced by visually impaired commuters and their views on the
strategies of our intended solutions through a questionnaire administered via
email (see Appendix C). The team brainstormed the responses provided (see
Appendix D) and the probable scenarios which refined the problem statement and
enhanced the two solutions.
7 Conclusion
Visually impaired commuters who are travelling by themselves are still
facing difficulties with boarding the right bus and alighting at the right stop
despite efforts to integrate people with disabilities into the society. This
problem will become more pressing given the anticipated increase in visually impaired persons. The
proposed solutions, "Bus Buddy" mobile application and LBS, aim to
solve this problem, thereby enhancing their commuting experience. It is timely
to implement this improvement given the commitment of the Ministry of Transport
to make the public transportation system a much better experience for all which
would also contribute to making Singapore a more inclusive society.
8 References
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