July 28, 2011
Tiramisu — literally, Italian for “pick me up” — makes it easy for riders to use their iPhones to signal the location and occupancy level of the Port Authority of Allegheny County bus they are riding, in real-time. The new app was developed by researchers in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT), supported in part by CMU’s Traffic21 initiative. It is available free through the iTunes AppStore.
With Tiramisu, anyone waiting at a bus or T stop with an iPhone can see which buses or light rail vehicles are due to arrive next and, thanks to the signals from riders already aboard, get an idea of how long they have to wait.
When a rider first activates the app, Tiramisu displays the nearest stops and a list of buses or light rail vehicles that are scheduled to arrive. When the vehicle arrives, the user indicates the level of “fullness” and then presses a button, allowing their phone to share an ongoing GPS trace with the Tiramisu server. Once aboard, the rider can use Tiramisu to find out which stop is next and to report problems, positive experiences and suggestions.
“Tiramisu is an exciting tool that will provide new types of useful information for Port Authority riders,” said Port Authority CEO Steve Bland. “Collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University on research aimed at improving public transportation has been an exciting and fruitful experience, which we hope continues for many more years.”
Read more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/july/july27_patiphoneapp.html
CMU Develops iPhone App That Predicts When Bus Will Arrive
Everybody who waits at a bus stop wants to know one thing: Where’s the bus? Thanks to Tiramisu, a new iPhone application developed at Carnegie Mellon, transit riders in Pittsburgh will soon be able to get the answer by using crowdsourcing to share arrival times with each other.Tiramisu — literally, Italian for “pick me up” — makes it easy for riders to use their iPhones to signal the location and occupancy level of the Port Authority of Allegheny County bus they are riding, in real-time. The new app was developed by researchers in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT), supported in part by CMU’s Traffic21 initiative. It is available free through the iTunes AppStore.
With Tiramisu, anyone waiting at a bus or T stop with an iPhone can see which buses or light rail vehicles are due to arrive next and, thanks to the signals from riders already aboard, get an idea of how long they have to wait.
When a rider first activates the app, Tiramisu displays the nearest stops and a list of buses or light rail vehicles that are scheduled to arrive. When the vehicle arrives, the user indicates the level of “fullness” and then presses a button, allowing their phone to share an ongoing GPS trace with the Tiramisu server. Once aboard, the rider can use Tiramisu to find out which stop is next and to report problems, positive experiences and suggestions.
“Tiramisu is an exciting tool that will provide new types of useful information for Port Authority riders,” said Port Authority CEO Steve Bland. “Collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University on research aimed at improving public transportation has been an exciting and fruitful experience, which we hope continues for many more years.”
Read more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/july/july27_patiphoneapp.html