Designing a Smart Bus Stop for

Metropolitans and Tier-1 Cities of

India
Sumit Arora Abstract
ar.sumit.arora@gmail.com Indian cities have become synonymous with
congestion. The metropolitans and Tier 1 cities being
impacted the most. Our transit foyers are as crowded
as our buses and trains. Our bus stops are lying in a
state of decay. They are unreliable, inconvenient and
uncoordinated. All this has worsened the experience of
a commuter. He is troubled with the extreme weather
conditions, confused by innumerable bus routes,
frustrated by lack of information and lastly, bored by
waiting for long hours.
The solution was realized in form of Smart-stop. It is an
NFC (Near Field Communication) based interactive
kiosk. Interactions in form of swiping/hover-over are
used to share and present data through a mobile
application.

Author Keywords
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Bus stop; mobile application; near field communication
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Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to H.5 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User
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Permissions@acm.org. design, User-centered design
IHCI '14, December 07 - 09 2014, New Delhi, India
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Introduction
ACM.
ACM 978-1-4503-3218-7/14/12…$15.00 Buses carry more than 90 percent of public transport in
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2676702.2676722 Indian cities [1]. From 1990 to 2000, there was an 86

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CASE STUDIES
YBR Bus Shelter, Spain
This urban bus shelter is integrated
and designed with the idea of
modularity. The shelter is an eco-
friendly project with a technological
twist. The bus stop has the ability
to communicate with mobile phones
to send out route and schedule
information. Solar panels and other
“green” materials can be used for
construction.
Le Station de Bus du Futur,
Paris
The objective of the project is to
increase the attractiveness of bus
transportation mode by engaging
commuters, pedestrians and
residents. The station incorporates
many innovative services such as
interactive touch screens, a
soothing & comfortable atmosphere
developed with an original sound
and light entertainment evolving
throughout the day. The traveller
information is taken care of by
providing all plans, network lines
and a dynamic information system.
Eye Stop, Florence
EyeStop is a concept device for bus
stops which will allow the
passengers to do a lot more
activities than just sitting idle and
wait. The solar-powered booth has
been provided with touchscreen
displays that will show necessary
information like bus schedules or
the shortest route for a certain
destination. Even more, passengers
will be able to browse the web,
check the air quality, see the exact
location of your desired bus,
interact with a mobile device and
use the booth as a community
message board to post ads [4].
percent increase in the size of Mumbai‟s bus fleet, and
a 54 percent increase in Chennai‟s bus fleet [2].
Research suggests that the larger the city size, the
higher the percentage of people depending on public
transport systems [3]. Thus, the especially rapid
growth of large cities suggests a further rise in future
demands for public transport in India.
Many of our bus shelters are not able to provide shelter
from rain or sun as they do not have a roof. Those with
the roofs do not provide any information about the bus
routes, timings etc. especially in the cities like Delhi
where there are more than 900 bus routes. Clearly,
public transport must be given priority attention to
avoid further consequences. With more than 90 percent
of public transport passengers in Indian cities relying
on buses, it is especially important to upgrade bus
services and urban spaces through effective design
solutions.
Related work
In this section, we present existing relevant research
initiatives to empower bus commuters.
Case Studies
Case studies of few proposed and existing bus-shelters
around the world ware done. The most relevant studies
include YBR Bus shelter designed by Eliel Cabrera, Le
Station de Bus du Futur and EyeStop, a project by SENSEable
City Lab, MIT. A brief of these is provided in the left bar.
Contextual inquiry
Qualitative research in form of semi-structured
interviews was conducted among 12 users. The study
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was conducted in Pune, India at Deccan Bus Terminus
(Figure 1). The users were asked questions about their
age, occupation, domicile, regularity and frequencies of
usage of buses, same or varied destinations and
amount of information users had. The questions also
included their average waiting time, things they carry
while travelling in buses, their journey times, route
details and things they like/unlike about the bus-stops.
We also used observation methods to investigate their
ways of collecting information about bus and what do
they do while waiting.
Insights and findings
We observed that commuters do not follow queues and
randomly use bus terminals. As shown in figure 2,
commuters use rails or platform to sit and
communicate to known people. Many wait on road as
buses park far-off from stops. People get bored for
approximately 10-15 minutes at bus stops while waiting
for the bus.
The Bus-stop has an information booth called „Chowki‟.
Next to Chowki is a chart showing the bus timings of
only the buses that originate from the stop (Figure 3).
Buses, however, don‟t follow timings and frequencies.
The information is provided in Hindi only. People go to
Chowki rather reading the chart as buses do not follow
timings. People also ask each other and the bus drivers
to get the required information.
The buses themselves carry very limited information.
Old people, because of low sight, have to go very close
to the bus to read the bus route. Stoppage time is very
less, so the information provided is of no use.
Most of the people interviewed are residing in Pune but
had migrated from nearby towns or village. They are

Figure 1: Deccan bus terminus,
Pune. © Sumit Arora
Figure 2: People sitting on rails
and platform. Others are waiting
on the road. © Sumit Arora
Figure 3: A man reading the bus-
timings chart. Information booth
is to the right of the chart. ©
Sumit Arora
either students or office-goers. They have Graduation
as average educational qualification. Most of the people
are non-regular users of buses and do not know the
routes to their destinations. Nearly 60% users carry a
smartphone or know how to operate it. It is their
biggest companion while waiting at the bus stop.
Vision Statement
The research suggests that the solution should consider
information aspects of bus stops as well as various
aspects of specified users. The Information aspects
include bus timings, frequencies, information required,
mode of providing information and efficiency etc.
On the other hand, users‟ age, sex, educational
qualification, occupation etc. and their activities &
behavioral aspects eg. waiting, passing time,
information gathering etc. should also be considered.
Design
Solution
We aimed to design a solution that can be quickly and
easily and efficient used and uses existing
infrastructure of mobile and tablet to provide
personalized information.
Ideation
Based on different levels of information to be provided
to different users, it was decided to split the
information among two screens, first to be installed at
bus stop and second users‟ mobile. The basic
information like route numbers of approaching buses,
their detailed route, type of buses and timing according
to their live location can be provided on the bus stop
screen. The other detailed information can be collected
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by connecting the phone to the device with wireless
technology. Such information includes detailed routes
of buses other than the buses approaching the bus
stop, travel distance, journey time etc.
Use of mobile ensures quick and personalized
information. It also avoids users to occupy the screen
for a long time. Thirdly, many users are shy to use a
screen in public as they are afraid of something going
wrong. Use of mobile phone avoids such cases.
How it works
Bus stop Screen (Figure 4 & 5)
The screen installed at bus stop is 900 mm high and
300 mm wide. It has two sections headed by thick red
bars with clear instructions. The upper section shows
buses approaching the bus stop and houses four sub
sections, each with a thick black strip with information
including route number, type of bus approaching and
time it will take to reach the bus stop according to live
GPS tracking. Below these strips are the starting and
ending points of the bus routes. The upper two sub-
sections also have the detailed
route information.
The lower panel is meant for
buses other than those
approaching the bus stop.
Detailed information of various
routes can be collected on
mobile phone. The user has to
hover-over his/her phone on a
specific part of screen to get
details of that specific route.
The bus shelter is also Figure 4: Side view of the bus
equipped with a camera and stop. © Sumit Arora
 a sound recorder (right above the screens) to deter
potential aggressors.
Mobile Application
The application works on NFC. The mobile phone
automatically connects to the bus stop as it is brought
in close proximity to the screen. NFC was preferred
over Bluetooth as different sections of bus stop screen
provide different information. Secondly, even if the
phones do not have NFC, users can use generic NFC
tags like Samsung TecTile. Further, few existing and
many of the upcoming phones will have NFC as a
default feature. [5]
If a user either finds his destination on screen or is
already aware of the route number but not about the
complete route details, he hovers-over his phone on
the specific route number on the upper section of the
bus stop screen. A page with all the required
information opens up in the application. The page can
be saved for further use. If the user is completely
unaware of the route details and does not find any
information on screen, he brings his mobile near to
lower section of screen. The application
landing page opens up asking user to
either type the destination name or
locate it on Google Maps. As the user
does so, a results page opens up with
the route details.
References
[1] Pucher J., Korattyswaroopam N. and Ittyerah N.
The Crisis of Public Transport in India: Overwhelming
Needs but Limited Resources. Journal of Public
Transportation, Vol. 7, No. 4 (2004), 99-100
[2] Association of State Road Transport Undertakings.
2002. The performance of STUs at a glance for the
period 1989–90 to 2000–01. Delhi, India: ASRTU.
http://www.asrtu.org/data-00-01.PDF.
Accessed:January 2014
[3] Sreedharan E. Need for urban mass transport
system for our cities. Press Information Bureau,
Government of India, New Delhi, India (2003).
[4] SENSEable City Lab, MIT. Adaptive Bus Stop,
Florence. Florence (2009).
http://senseable.mit.edu/eyestop/ppt%20florence.pdf
[5] NFC phones: The definitive list.
http://www.nfcworld.com/nfc-phones-list/

Figure 5: Detail of screen at bus
stop. © Sumit Arora
Conclusion
The solution is a „Smart‟ shelter-cum-
device, a harmonious combination of
physical and digital infrastructure (Figure
4). It is simple, adaptable, interactive &
sustainable. Figure 6: Screenshots of mobile application

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