Introducing In Arrivo! HD, a transit app for iOS devices

By fbartolom, 13 July, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Thanks to the support of a visual impaired user in Rome I rendered the in Arrivo HD transit app friendly for any user in a similar situation.

The app allows to know the stops around one's position, the route to them and the buses passing by and the waiting times without entering any information. Moreover it allows to read the direction to a certain destination and offers in app add ons to base the action in another location or future time, and also allows to reserve the closest taxi by a simple touch and/or to talk with them to arrange the trip.
Other features include the possibility of posting social paths in order to share taxi or car drive or even to arrange a walk, and the dashboard allowing to read the closest stops in a table and directly access their waiting times and location on the map.
Once the app is opened users with voice-over enabled will be able to hear the GPS accuracy and the addressed and number of nearby stops. Clicking the stop shall read its address, number, busses passing by it and their destination, distance and even the number of buses on approach. Visually impaired people may follow paths by an experimental pulsating sound getting more frequent the closer the user keeps to the path and acute the closer she is to the destination.

Presently the app supports Rome, Milan and London, but it is ready to support more cities once the transit support is made available, thanks to the unified back-office: there is a 100 euro reward for each city. The app is free to download and try.

Version 8.3 with full support for accessibility has been submitted to Apple for approval.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/in-arrivo!-hd-tuo-supporto/id409812280?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8&at=11l4LS

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Comments

By sockhopsinger on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

I don't live in Europe so probably won't be able to use the app. However, you are to be commended for taking the time and making the effort for making your app accessible. Thanks again.

By Krister Ekstrom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hello,
Sweden could really use an app like this and not only the big cities but all of Sweden.

By riyu12345 (not verified) on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hi.

I like this app but I'd like to know a couple things and to have something added if possible.

1. Is it possible to get the number of stops until your destination? For example, you've just found your stop and know where you want to go, but don't know how many stops it is. It would be really nice if it says name of destination in five stops. Then every stop the bus makes at a bus stop it could say name of the bus stop, then; destination in, then the number.

For example; If I'm looking for ealing brawdway, it might say, e7 bus stop, ealing brawdway in five stops. Then when I'm on the bus, the next time the bus arrives at a bus stop it would say, ealing brawdway in four stops.

2. Would it be possible to get a help button in the app, that would lead to help on how to use it?

3. I've looked and ealing brawdway on the app appears as ealing BDY, which is quite confusing. Would it be possible to either edit names of stops so you know what they are, or change Ealing BDY to ealing Brawdway?

4. Are there plans on making the whole of the UK accessible via this app? is so that would be so so amazing, since apart from london and a tiny ffew other areas, not many buses have recorded speech and neither do trains

Thanks so much for making this app accessible, it's going to be amazing when I go out side to travel.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

1. Yes, it is enough to open the line by tapping the bus row to have the table centered on your stop, then when you board the bus the app shall read out the crossed stop. As for the number of stops, possibly the user shall have to count the cells by swiping. It is not evident how to provide an interface for selecting a stop and answering how many stops it is away. If you have some suggestion, I would be happy to take it into account. Of course technically it is no major deal.
2. Upon first using the app so pop-ups come out to inform about the meaning of the major element. I think they are also accessible, but I am presently not totally sure.
3. The names are directly fetched from the transit service and we have no possibility of manfully edit them. At any rate I forward you response to the technician supporting the data source for London to check if he may improve the situation.
4. The back-office for the app is centralized: I offer 100 euros for each new city added by means of the simple API I offer. More information is available at:
https://www.peopleperhour.com/job/view?id=645384&jobview=1
There have been since some modifications but it is basically that one. I even provide some helper function to assist the modeler. Please inform me if you know of someone wanting to support some other cities in England.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

In reply to by sockhopsinger

As I already answered I am open to provide more cities and offer 100 Euros for each. So if you qualify or you know someone who qualifies I could be offering your city of choice in a matter of days.

I would be happy to also offer Swedish cities in my app. The offer of Euro 100 for city also holds for Sweden.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

My visually impaired beta tester does not know how to browse the annotations on the map by swiping, without of course touching them, what might be a bit difficult. Does any of you know how to do it?

By Krister Ekstrom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

What would i do to add cities in say Sweden? Is it something a user has to do or are there other things that has to happen for cities to be added? I think the problem for me as a bus user only is to get people interested in adding their cities to this app. I know there's some kind of organization or company or something that has databases for many if not all cities and towns in Sweeden but if they want to add this to your app, i don't know and especially if i as someone who rides busses asks.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

The condition for supporting a city is that of course the transit service provides the information about its transit in open format. Thereafter the modeler shall have to write four php classes with a couple of methods each inheriting from the templates I provide bridging the access to the transit service and offering a common interface. On the people4hour page I posted, there is more information,

By bryan mcglashan on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hi.

Love the idea although I have a question.

Will you by any chance be branching out into Scotland? I was wondering because I get a bus to work every day and could really use an app like this.

It sounds great.

Cheers :-)

By AppleVis on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

It would be much appreciated if somebody who has downloaded and used this app would submit it to the site’s App Directory. Thanks!

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Of course I could not agree more, perhaps you might start to submit it to the app directory yourself...

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

The possibility of extending coverage is also available for Scotland. Please either you or a known developer check if the city where you live distributes the transit information and then contact me to know better what to do to extend in Arrivo HD to your own city.

By sockhopsinger on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Someone who has used the app needs to be the one to submit it to the app directory. The reason is that whoever uses it will best be able to test not only its accessibility, but also its ease of use. I'm sure it will get submitted soon.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

As a matter of fact the current version just has a stub of accessibility. The full fledged support for it shall appear soon in version 8.3.

By bryan mcglashan on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

In reply to by fbartolom

Hi.

I know the bus timetables etc are available on the stagecoach website.

I'm not an app developer or anything like that so I haven't got a clue as to what information you will need et cetera. I don't live in a city, it's a town that i live in but there are quite a few buses.

By Krister Ekstrom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

I know there's something called "Samtrafiken", (common traffic) or something to that effect here in Sweden that provides all busses time tables and so on, but just like the previous poster i'm no programmer, just a user, i would even go so far as to say that i'm an idiot when it comes to programming in any shape or form, heck even Workflow for iOs goes way way over my head so i don't know either what to do or if i can do something at all.

By fbartolom on Friday, July 10, 2015 - 14:04

Unfortunately I have not enough time to directly cover a new city or group of them, nor I speak Swedish good enough to be able to peruse the instructions. So if you know of some local php programmer that could do the job you may tell her there is a Euro 100 reward to write a couple of simple classes with the methods to bridge the Samtrafiken service.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I think I managed to submit my information to register on the Swedish site, notwithstanding it misses and English translation and understand what to do will be a nightmare.

At any rate I did not even start as I was not sent the confirmation email.

There is a message about the holiday season but I did not understand it it also covers registrations.

May someone help? Thanks.

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hi, what do you need help with? Maybe i could be of some use. I don't know how good i'd be but we could always try.:-)

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

... if I try to register to the Samtrafiken site, everything seems fine, but no confirmation email is sent. Perhaps you may try and see if you understand something better in the Swedish text.

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Ok, i'll look into it tomorrow. I'll see what will happen when i try registering.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Ok, thanks, I am looking forward to your feedback. Perhaps you might want to contact them in their native language if you also experience problems.

Best regards,
Fabrizio Bartolomucci

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hi, i've now been at Samtrafiken.se and here's what i've found. There was indeed a link for you to register with the site, but many of the fields i couldn't even fill in as a private person. They talked amongst other things of who had given me authority as a transit provider and so forth, so coward or not, i didn't really dare filling in these fields and so couldn't register. The good news though is that i found a contact address for them, it is info at samtrafiken dot se. There's even a direct link from their home page entitled "kontakta oss" (contact us). You could use that link to introduce your app and show how it could benefit us here in Sweden in many ways. Surely there must be someone who speaks english there and you could also send pics of the app in action to show what it can do.
/Krister

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Of course I sent a request to the contact point, communicating as a starter that I could not register. I used to speak some Swedish when I was younger, but even now I may get the meaning of "kontakta oss" :-)
The point is that they did not answer. I do not know if the reported holiday to August 17th applies.
At any rate, did you manage to register?

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

As a matter of fact I landed in a different page altogether yesterday. I shall try to contact the people whose photos are in display in the page you gave me.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Ok, I sent a message to Mr. Gerhard Wennerström. Would you be so kind to also phone them to check they are open and possibly also introduce me and my app?

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I didn't see a phone number, the contact link fired up my mail client so couldn't do much. I'll check again though.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I copy the phone numbers of people I contacted here, for your convenience:

Gerhard Wennerström
VerkstÀllande direktör
070-762 38 76 Skype: gerwe-sam

Daniel BergenÄs
Trafikdata & Resplus
070-762 38 30

Thanks and regards,
Fabrizio

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I hav now contacted Samtrafiken and unfortunately all i got was an answering machine so i told them i wanted to get in contact with someone responsible for accessibility. Let's see where this leads.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I shall have the August month free of anticipated work, but for porting the apps to Swift and write the test cases, so it would be great if for the beginning of the month I have the instructions to implement the support for Sweden, so to have the app available for all of you by September.

By Krister Ekstrom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I hope we could get Sweden implemented, but i have my doubts. I'm just a common person and the chance of me affecting a big companys or organizations decisions is less than minimal to say the least, so hope for the best but expect the worst, i've done what i can as a private person.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I appreciate your contribution for having their attention. When this is done I think I may easily express my needs to them to support Sweden alone and offer the support for Sweden when I am done.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

Hi,
I was contacted by Mr. Åke Jonsson from Trafiklabs to whom I submitted my requirements for covering Sweden with in Arrivo HD. Yet I received no further news from him. Could you please investigate?

Thanks, Fabrizio

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

All messages from Samtrafiken strangely ended up in the Junk mail. I recovered them and I managed to register and get the apis. I also saw and answered a message by the gentleman I already mentioned. I will commit to that soon.

By fbartolom on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:04

I started working at Trafiklab to try and deliver transit information also for Sweden. Yet I have ugly problems in finding my way there, even by taking advantage of Google translate and my basic knowledge of Swedish. In particular the most basic api - SL HĂ„llplatser och Linjer 2:
https://www.trafiklab.se/api/sl-hallplatser-och-linjer-2

returns an access denied when I submit my key:

https://api.trafiklab.se/samtrafiken/resrobot/TimeTablePeriod.json?key=0e97e74509e549f0baefe05f3c9a6a99&apiVersion=2.1

Perhaps I already told you I just need the buses and metros for a city, their lines, poles with coordinates and realtime waiting times - in addition to the directions from one address to another - in order to support the transit information for it on the app. It should not be a hard job, but I have problems to start.
Any help would be appreciated, especially from Swedish people that could contact them in their own language.

Thanks anyone,
Fabrizio