By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., UFTI Research & Communications Coordinator
Bus stops are an important part of many people’s lives, connecting them to jobs, groceries, health care, leisure activities and more. However, if a bus stop facility lacks certain amenities such as a sheltered roof, accessibility features, signage, lighting, or benches, riders may start developing a negative perception of public transportation.
Many cities and transit agencies lack a comprehensive database of bus stop amenities, and traditional data collection methods are labor-intensive and costly. Enter Xiang Jacob Yan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF Department of Civil Engineering. Yan, along with his student research assistants and collaborators from Auburn University and the University of Central Florida, has come up with an innovative way to collect bus stop amenities data – artificial intelligence (AI).
“Basically, we trained an AI model to help us see what amenities are available at each bus stop based on Google Street View images,” Yan said.
The resulting product is called the Transit Amenities Assessment System (TAAS). The system scans images and delivers up-to-date data that is accurate and related to bus stop conditions in Florida cities. Instead of sending multiple staff to manually inspect every bus stop, TAAS streamlines and automates the process, making it more efficient to conduct bus stop audits so that transit agencies can focus on other tasks and priorities. Furthermore, transit agencies can make better decisions about which bus stops need improving in certain areas.
This newly developed system can be a game changer for city planners and transportation professionals, providing cost-effective and time-saving solutions for the assessment of bus stop infrastructure. Furthermore, Yan says this very same technology could be used to conduct audits of other urban features, such as sidewalks and crosswalks, to make cities safer, reliable, and accessible.
“TAAS can be readily deployed across different urban contexts with relatively low additional cost and effort,” Yan said. “In an ongoing project funded by the Center for Transit-Oriented Communities, a USDOT Tier-1 University Transportation Center, the team aims to use TAAS to develop a nationwide transit stop amenities database.”
Better-equipped bus stop facilities can also encourage and attract more people to use public transportation, which can also help reduce congestion. Yan’s study is a testament to how artificial intelligence can make public transportation better and more attractive for users.