As part of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Hack My Ride 2.0 challenge, Acumen’s product development team created AcuTransit, a smartphone application that offers VTA bus riders a better way to know their routes inside and out.
The AcuTransit Android mobile application uses VTA’s General Transit Feed Specification open data along with real-time 511.org and Google Places JSON feed data. The app detects the Bluetooth low-energy beacons integrated at a VTA bus route and displays each and every stop of that route, the estimated bus arrival times at the stops and major points of interest along the route.
A similar open-source transit application was developed by the nonprofit venture, Wayfindr, to help visually impaired travelers navigate transit systems. Funded by Google.org, the Wayfindr app is currently being tested on the London Underground.