Some engineering students from Arizona State University have come up with a solution to address delays in the Tempe Streetcar schedule.
The Tempe Streetcar is facing scheduling disruptions as a result of traffic, pedestrian crossings and signal delays. Students on the team built a real-time tracking device with GPS that delivered streetcar coordinates to a cloud server.
The students also developed an app and a website to see the streetcar’s location.
John Lewis is the director of business development at ASU’s engineering school and mentored the student group.
“They had to build on a user interface so that students and then, other people could download their app and then go to the website and locate where the trolleys are. So this way, it gives people that are riding the trolley a really good idea of when it's going to arrive,” he said.
Engineering student Veraj Patel says many people use the transportation system.
“It is highly susceptible to traffic and congestion, especially in the mornings and evenings when a lot of commuter students and other people, professors, everybody who wants to come to this area is on the road,” he said.
Despite Valley Metro showing interest in the project, Patel says they’re still working on implementing the technology.
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