“VisionBridge invites Scotrail and all franchised transport owners/operators in Scotland to consider the importance of digital wayfinding support for their customers.”

As a blind user of public transport and a champion of assistive technology innovation, I have a personal as well as professional interest in the maximum degree of accessibility available to abled and differently-abled travellers across all forms of public transport; and this includes transport hubs and networks in Scotland. However, I believe the two key ingredients required to provide truly accessible and inclusive transport are wayfinding technology that works plus the will amongst rail owners/operators to deploy such technology.

In this context, my social enterprise VisionBridge advocates for highly innovative assistive technologies. We have no commercial interest but we do have a mission to widen access to the most appropriate tech that we believe will have a major positive impact on people’s quality of life. So, we invite transport owners/operators, policy makers, passenger groups, academics and the voluntary sector across Scotland to explore and validate a highly innovative digital wayfinding solution called “Waymap” (waymapnav.com). I suggest that this type of wayfinding technology could improve passenger experiences, better connect people and places, reduce CO2 emissions, enhance network resilience and increase transport hub efficiencies.

Undoubtedly, there is a need in the transport sector to provide scaleable, standardised, inclusive and innovative wayfinding solutions that are passenger focused and relevant across entire journeys. There is also an obligation to reduce passenger anxiety and position stations as “safe, seamless, social and sustainable” venues for all travellers. We would like to coordinate a collective quest in Scotland to identify and deploy the most innovative wayfinding solution which will greatly help to support underserved communities, encourage all abled and differently-abled people to explore their surroundings, boost user confidence to travel on public transport and ultimately improve all citizen’s quality of life.

It is surely everyone’s right to travel in safety and comfort and to remain as independent and mobile as possible while doing so. I am passionate about people’s ability to travel freely and to take full advantage of the employment and educational opportunities and social plus cultural connectivity that fully accessible travel can bring. I want a digital wayfinding solution like Waymap to play its part in creating this connected ecosystem for everyone and ultimately delivering a bigger social revolution than the motor car!

Waymap is participating in the RIA Glasgow event 19 November.

 A brief introduction to Waymap

Waymap’s mission is to foster accessibility, independent mobility, and efficient travel for everyone Waymap is the world’s most accurate, fully inclusive smart city navigation app; Indoor and outdoor hands-free audio or on-screen navigation ; utilising sensor-fusion based indoor localisation technology; accurate up to 1 step, with absolutely no infrastructure-dependant tags or beacons or connectivity required such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS or mobile signals.

Backed by TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, one of the world’s largest social impact funds which invests in start-ups driving social change, to make the world a better place. Leveraging the power of technology to drive positive change. 

Waymap is free of charge for users and uses just the location algorithm and an accurate map featuring “points of interest” to deliver step by step guidance with internal accuracy up to 1 metre. Waymap supports all user profiles and age-groups; from the vi/blind communities to those with cognitive and sensory challenges and those with no challenges at all, except that they require additional help in navigating and orientating around the built environment. Waymap is scaleable, multi-lingual and appropriate for all abled and differently-abled users across a range of sectors, including transport, retail, healthcare, education, sports, culture and tourism.

Venues (including transport hubs and networks( can request a costed LiDAR Survey and Mapp, followed by API integration if required and then full Operations Phase providing Access to the Waymap platform with updates and customer support.

Further functionality developments are planned, including: Proximity Marketing, Emergency evacuation and First Responder Navigation, Asset Tracking, Indoor Movement Data and Analytics, Retail Integration, venue capacity Monitoring and crowd management, Exploration / Augmented Reality virtual touring of the Built Environment.