Some SEPTA riders will see new, real-time arrival information at their bus and trolley stops this spring.
The transit agency’s new pilot program will launch 10 “e-paper” displays at stops all over the city, aiming to give riders more updated information.
The displays are different from traditional screens, said Lex Powers, SEPTA’s Chief Officer of Customer Experience.
“They’re small enough to be mounted on a bus or a trolley stop pole, and they don’t use a lot of power, so you can use solar power for them,” he said.
The screens will also offer accessibility features, including large text, high contrast, text-to-speech features and an ADA-informed layout.
Powers said SEPTA has been working on a number of initiatives to help modernize and simplify SEPTA service.
This includes the New Bus Network initiative, which has generated community feedback from over 20,000 residents through virtual meetings, in-person events, and public hearings.
Powers explained that many riders throughout the process said knowing when the next bus will arrive was a main priority.
“Getting good, real-time arrival information to bus riders is a challenge just because there are so many stops, and there isn’t a lot of infrastructure at most of those stops,” he said. “And half of our daily riders are bus riders, so it’s really important for us to be able to get good information to them.”
He said this step is just “one piece” of an effort to bring further improvements to bus riders.
There are no specific pilot locations yet, but SEPTA’s criteria for selection include high overall customer impact and geographic equity – including neighborhoods with no existing digital signage options.
“We obviously want to be able to hit as many riders as possible,” he said. “We want geographic equity, so that the screens don’t all go in the same place, but also to spread them out into different neighborhoods and on different types of routes, and just to see how they perform.”
Bus stops will be considered for the displays, as well as T, G, D and M metro stations.
Chosen locations should also “get enough sun to be able to keep a sign like this active all year,” Powers said, adding that SEPTA will perform a solar study on sites under consideration.
Do you want to see one of the pilot screens at your transit stop? Public feedback and suggestions are currently being collected on SEPTA’s website.
The 10 pilot devices will be installed by the end of May.
Depending on the success of – and cybersecurity of – the first round of devices, Powers told Billy Penn that the agency hopes that “by the time we get into the fall, we’re going to be ready to deploy an additional round, but that will depend on the results of the study.”
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