INSIDE ITS - October 15, 2006

ADVANCED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Sound Transit gets $2M federal grant for multimodal Talking Signs deployment

Infrared transmitters of audio information will be installed on buses, commuter rail, and light rail vehicles, as well as stations and nearby intersections. System is designed to help sight-impaired people navigate the public transportation network. Congress asks for an evaluation in three years. Mitsubishi puts Talking Signs technology in mobile phones.

The Federal Transit Administration has given Sound Transit, in Seattle, Wash., a $1.98-million grant to install a regional, multimodal infrared way-finding system to aid sight-impaired customers.

The grant is authorized by a provision in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) that calls for a Remote Infrared Audible Signage (RIAS) Model Accessibility Project (MAP). Congress wants to have an evaluation of the project in three years.

Michael Miller, the project manager for Transit Sound's Mobility Initiative Program, says the agency will issue a request for proposals for the project, but he notes that Talking Signs, in Baton Rouge, La., is the only vendor that supplies RIAS systems. In fact, a Sound Transit press release says the grant money will be used to install a Talking Signs system.

Talking Signs technology consists of transmitters sending audio signals by directional infrared light beams to handheld receivers that decode the signals and play the message through speakers or headsets. The installation in the Puget Sound region will allow users to identify approaching and departing transit vehicles, locate transit facilities, and hear "walk" and "wait" announcements at crosswalks.

Ward Bond, the president of Talking Signs, says the company has installed systems "here, there, and yon" around the world but the Sound Transit project will be the first seamless, intermodal deployment. "That means that you can find the bus shelter, you can get on the bus, you can change to the train, and you can cross the street using our system," he says.

Talking Signs has worked with Luminator, in Plano, Texas, on installing RIAS on buses and with Polara Engineering, in Fullerton, Calif., on installing RIAS on crosswalk systems.

Miller says Sound Transit conducted a pilot project using Talking Signs technology a few years ago. He says, "It was a very successful program" but the agency did not have the funds to extend it. With the RIAS MAP grant money, the agency plans to install a total of 550 transmitters at 12 transit facilities and intersections around the facilities, and on 270 vehicles. The vehicles will be commuter bus, commuter rail, and light rail vehicles.

Sound Transit plans to begin installation in the spring of next year and to complete it by December 2008. The agency, which serves King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties in the Central Puget Sound region in Washington, is investing about $240,000 of its own money in the project.

Miller says Sound Transit is talking with foundations about providing the Talking Signs handheld receivers to blind people. He notes that the agency is prohibited by law from providing them as a gift. Bond says, "We consider that part of our job is to see that the blind person gets the receiver for free." He says the grant contains a considerable amount of money for the purchase of receivers, which cost $295 apiece.

Developing the technology

Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, in San Francisco, invented the Talking Signs technology in 1979. Bond says he took it from the laboratory about 13 years ago and has developed it further. Microcomputer Systems, in Baton Rouge, helped turn the technology into a product.

Most of the transit Talking Signs installations are currently in the San Francisco Bay Area, including several Caltrain stations, San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) facilities, Bay Area Rapid Transit facilities, and ferry terminals.

Bond says that NextBus offers embedded Talking Signs transmitters as an option in its bus shelter dynamic display signs, and that Muni has specified Talking Signs/RIAS for 400 bus shelters that NextBus is installing.

ITS America gave Talking Signs a Best of ITS Award in 2000 (see Inside ITS Online, June 1, 2000).

Bond says the Mitsubishi Precision Company is working with Hitachi, NEC, and NTT DoCoMo on a mobile phone in Japan that incorporates a Talking Signs receiver.

The Sound Transit website is www.soundtransit.org. The Talking Signs website is www.talkingsigns.com. The RIAS MAP project is authorized under section 3046(a)(6) of SAFETEA-LU, which can be accessed on the U.S. Department of Transportation website at www.dot.gov.

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