Beyond the Countdown Clock Design Competition

Competition Entry: Easy Travel

EASY TRAVEL helps everyone to be on schedule. GPS system tracks the position, location of the bus, train, ferry, light rail, flights and this information is sent as wireless to the data center which processes the information. The information is then uploaded in the internet. The bus stop, railway station can access information from internet. Each individual user can also access information about timing and schedule of mass transportation facilities through their mobile by connecting to the internet.

Elderly population and population with less access to technology will be able to access this facility by calling to a service number. The call would be computerised with voice recognition facility to get the inputs. There will also be an option to connect to the customer care people. They will update the user by sending information about the transportation facility requested through SMS.  A person can also enquire about a particular service by following a SMS pattern and they will be continuously be updated through SMS. In case of accidents or breakdown of bus, the information will be sent along with best other alternative travel options. Every bus will have a device installed which will keep the count of people in the bus. Using this information, seat booking can be done .This service can be limited to elderly, pregnant ladies, differently able and sick people.

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Competition Entry: Subway Organ

Our solution is called the Subway Organ. The Subway Organ is a train whistle — in our case, an organ pipe — that sounds at street level and on the platform, signaling to users that a train is approaching. The organ pipe is powered by the wind generated in a subway tunnel by an oncoming train. Each train line has its own dedicated organ pipe that produces a distinct tone, so users can distinguish which train is arriving.

The Subway Organ solution is effective in that:

• It achieves our key goals of allowing passengers to make more informed transportation decisions at street level, and is useful to users both young and old, rich and poor;across cultural, linguistic, and technological barriers.
• It leverages existing wind energy into a useful function.
• It is a durable solution in that it would be as relevant and useful 100 years from now as it would be today.
• It contributes to the tapestry of the city’s culture and vibrancy, and speaks to the MTA’s history of public art.

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Competition Entry: Train’s Here, High Five

Narrowly missing the subway is often followed by deep self-hatred for that unnecessary stop and can snowball into what some would refer to as a bad morning.

How can this be avoided in a fun (“delightful” as they say) way? I like the idea of leaving it up to exiting passengers to alert future-riders of a train’s whereabouts.

My proposal for the Beyond the Countdown Clock competition has the working-title “Train’s Here, High-Five”. It alludes to that, however large or small, sense of accomplishment felt when a destination is reached. Willing participants give a big High-Five to the hand representing the train from which they just disembarked. When a hand gets at least three hits in a three-minute time frame, it sends that information to above ground displays at that station as well as one and two stops away. This indicates to passers by that the train is in the station and they have probably missed it, while alerting those at nearby stations that the train is approaching.

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Competition Entry: Honolulu Rail Transit Project

The City and County of Honolulu’s planned 20-mile rail transit system, the Honolulu Rail Transit Project, is one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history. Many people in the island community of Oahu have not been exposed to rail transit. The last passenger rail service on Oahu ended in 1947 and industrial rail use ended in the 1970s. This video, narrated by a former local television news anchor, uses state-of-the-art live action and animated simulations of the guideway, rail vehicles and station platforms to bring the proposed rail transit system to life by illustrating how local residents and visitors will interact with the system’s many features. This method was used to facilitate understanding of rail transit through a visual virtual experience of Honolulu’s future.

A high-definition fly through of the proposed route and station footprints roots the system in place and time, further enhancing the visual experience.  Finally, dancing on the station platform and virtual ride on the elevated guideway bring the system to life for the next generation of Oahu’s transit users as the landscape of Oahu passes outside the rail car windows.

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Competition Entry: How’s Metro

HowsMetro.com is a fully functional tool to check on the status of metro lines in Washington, DC. It displays a wealth of information derived from the WMATA’s API, such as average wait time, countdown-esque wait times at specific stations, and real-time locations of trains in the system. It’s also filterable by line and by train. The site uses all this data to roughly determine the state of each line in each direction, advising riders on stability and wait times. A mobile-friendly version is in the works.

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Competition Entry: The Transit Friend

The Transit Friend is a application for your smartphone. Its main function is to advise you on your journey to a public transport depot or station. People often use GPS to find the best route, but where this product differs is incorporating speed into the equation. 

When the user selects a destintion, the app automatically accesses the appropriate timetable and reports back with the arrival times of the next trains/bus/ferry. Now the app knows the distance and time to the next train/bus/ferry, so it can advise the user to increase or decrease their walking speed in order to catch it on time.

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