Alpert is a project manager at Mobility Lab, a tech group within Arlington County Commuter Services that works to make transportation options more accessible to the public. They just launched their latest project: digital screens with information on Metro, bus and regional rail arrival times and Capital Bikeshare availabilities that local businesses can purchase and display in-store. How do these screens work? It’s a low-cost, Linux-based computer system that connects to a standard computer monitor — it costs about $400 to $800. The idea is to make it easy and inexpensive for a business to put up information about bus arrivals, train arrivals, regional rail and Capital Bikeshare.
How did you come up with this idea? There are some smartphone apps that do the same thing, but obviously not everyone has smartphones — most people still don’t, and even those that do sometimes don’t have the app already installed. There are screens in the Arlington County government offices and the [D.C. government’s] Reeves Building, but they haven’t become very widespread yet. Our project’s goal was to try to find a way to use off-the-shelf and open-source software to make it more low-cost for a business to put a screen in.
How has the project been going so far? We have two test sites where we placed screens with businesses that volunteered: Java Shack in Courthouse, and Red Palace on H Street in D.C. People have been very positive about them. Java Shack say customers and even employees find it very useful and it draws a lot of attention; Red Palace has said it makes their location very special. In the end these were just early tests. We’re in the process of starting to reach out to businesses and see who’s interested, trying to figure out to whom and where the screens would best go.
– Aubrey Whelan
