Real-time transit information – knowing exactly when the bus is coming – is a game changer. With transit ridership declining across the country, reliable information can increase ridership and improve passenger experience, studies show.
The two main ways of accessing real-time information is by checking your smartphone or viewing a screen mounted in a public place. These dynamic message boards are usually mounted in transit stations, but survey results from our new report on real-time transit information (pictured to the right) suggest that Arlington, Va. transit riders would like to see more of these screens around the county.
The most popular prospective locations for transit screens were shopping centers, lobbies of commercial buildings, lobbies of apartment buildings, and hospitals. Only 7 percent of respondents said that they would not find transit screens useful in places beside transit stations.
This isn’t an idea unique to Arlington. Cities around the world mount dynamic message boards all over, not just in transit stations. Here are some of our favorite examples.
The TransitScreen signage in Washington DC’s Gallery Place Chinatown neighborhood, as pictured at the top of this article.
The screens at Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market.
New York City’s NYCLink screens on sidewalks. There are over 1,700 located at various points throughout the city.
And, of course, perhaps our all-time favorite: theSmartWalk mockup design by Brenner Vasquez for TransitScreen, as portrayed in Fairfax, Va.
