It used to take Michele Lee three hours to get to downtown Chicago from her suburban home. The trip required a mix of buses and trains, and missing one connection would throw everything out of whack.
People need easy access to work and to essential services to live decent, independent lives. Cities need Universal Basic Mobility. It’s a human right.
One-Size May Not Fit All: Wheelchair and Scooter Users Compare the Usability of Different Public Bus Layouts.
Tiramisu, literally meaning “pick me up” in Italian, is a crowd-sourced app that informs users of the arrival time and seating availability for buses.Tiramisu uses a smartphone’s GPS to display nearby bus stops, which can be shown on a map or in “list view” for increased accessibility. Users select a particular bus stop to find out bus arrival times, which are based on reports from current riders, historic data, or the transit service schedule. Users can also get information on bus fullness to determine if they are likely to find an empty seat or room for a mobility device. Once on the bus, users can report on bus fullness and “record” their journey using their phone’s GPS, thereby helping to inform other Tiramisu users still waiting for a bus.
FTA is an agency that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems | US Department of Transportation (DOT)