September 2016 - Route4U blog

I would love to help! How do I join the fun?

2016-10-052016-09-24 by tibor

route4u felujított kossuth tér akadálymentes vincze zoltán

I would love to help! How do I join the fun?

You have multiple options. 🙂

Although we’re just starting our pilot in Portsmouth, UK, you can use the Route4U app anywhere in the world already. The general problem with services based on community-contribution is that reaching the minimum viable amount of data in a given area is not easy. This is why we designed our app to use OpenStreetMap data, this way we already have hunders, thousands of places (Points of Interest – POI) with accessibility data available in every town and city of the world.

This means that If you use wheelchairs or prams every day, you can still use the app, even though there will be no sidewalk navigation in your city at first, due to the inital lack of sidewalk data. Of course, since you can automatically “survey” sidewalks, crossings and road surfaces, you can be one of the pioneers of your area who help us put the map together.

By tapping on gray circles on the Route4U map, you can add accessibility information to that shop, venue, etc. This way, you notify every Route4U user in the world, about the accessibility of that place. In addition, this information will be available on OpenStreetMap too, for everyone to see. Check the current status of the Portsmouth map out here. Please read our Assessment Guide to see what kind of toilets and entrances fit into which category. This way we can avoid false data appearing on the map. Don’t worry though! Sometimes it’s not easy to decide the colours. If you have doubts, just add some comments in the “Accessibility Details” box. See the guide here.

You can also join the fun by following our Facebook page . We regularly share information about the map and the apps (both iOS and Android) organize events and share interesting stuff about the world of accessibility.

We also created a Route4U – UK Mapping closed Facebook group where our UK-based users can share feedback about map data and the app in general. We also hope to build an active community of accessiblity enthusiasts 🙂

As we mentioned above, sidewalk data is very difficult to collect – even with our automatic function – without a big number of active wheelchair or pram users on the city streets. This is why we cooperate with city councils to map the first version of the accessibility map, which is then continuously being updated by our users, just by rolling around the city streets. We provide cites with statistics, heat maps, and problematic locations data about their sidewalk network. Please contact our CEO: peter.bodo@route4u.org for more information!

Come with us, let’s get things rolling! 🙂

Live in Portsmouth? Come check this out! – Preliminary mapping of the Portsmouth pilot area has finished

2016-09-242016-09-23 by tibor

We collected sidewalk and crossing data on our trip to Portsmouth using the automatic survey funcion of the Route4U iOS application. We compared the result of this survey with open source data sets, and now released this preliminary sidewalk map of a pilot area in the centre of Portsmouth. We say it’s preliminary because only after Route4U users are actively contributing to the map, when all the shortcuts and personal routes are on it, we can say we’re ashore.

You are reading this because you are enthusiastic about wheelchair navigation, and you – as we do – actively work for a more convenient, more accessible world.

Before the October 1. start of our public test in Portsmouth, we would like YOU to check the map out, and give us feedback. We want to make sure it’s useful for locals and tourists alike. It looks like this now:

Check out the current status here. Right-click the map to plan an accessible route from A to B, or click on the grey circles (they are Points of Interest – POI) to view and assess their accessibility. You can also download the iOS app here, for more features and a much better user experience.

Please help us with these questions, let’s make sure everything is ready before setting sail:

Is there a pedestrian path connecting Anglesea Road and Guildhall Square? (behind King Henry Building and Park Building?) here: http://route4u.org/maps/#18.05/50.79791/-1.09389/0/1
Is the path from Guildhall Square to Victoria Park shown correctly on the map? here: http://route4u.org/maps/#18.08/50.79816/-1.09244/0/1
Surface smoothness of Commercial Road, do you agree it’s convenient “green”? here: http://route4u.org/maps/#18.73/50.80141/-1.08922/0/1
We love short routes! Do you? Are there any accessible arcades or other shortcuts that are not yet featured on the map of the surveyed area? See an example here: http://route4u.org/maps/#19.22/50.79659/-1.09253/0/1
You can show us your preferred routes (even if they’re not yet on the map) by tapping the “ruler” icon in the bottom left corner of the map in our iPhone app.
Have you encountered any map errors regarding sidewalk surfaces, crossings, curbs? You can pin them for review inside the app. Just make a long tap on the map and choose “Obstacle”. Please choose “Map improvement” and if you can, attach a photo of the problematic area by tapping the camera icon above the red face.

Since you’re definitely an early adopter,

Feel free to write a note in our mapping group about anything Route4U related, or send an email to our cartographer: tibor@route4u.org

If you feel like, you can start the public testing right away! By clicking on the grey circles on the map around you, you can assess their accessibility. The information becomes available to everyone in less then an hour! If you encounter any obstacles – temporary or permanent – why not put them on the map, as it is mentioned above? The Route4U route planner now takes this into consideration during sidewalk navigation!

You are amazing, thank You! 🙂

Oh and there’s more: during our campaign in October we’ll be solving a nice, online community puzzle game together. – Stay tuned!

Wheelchair sailing on lake Velencei in Hungary

2016-09-132016-09-13 by tibor

Last week team Route4U went sailing.

One of our friends told us about the wheelchair sailing opportunity at Agárd, on the shore of lake Velencei. They operate a Rehabilitation Centre at the lakeside where people can move in for a couple of months while they are learning to cope with challanges of their new life. The Centre is also next to a small harbor where residents can (and should!) try sailing.

How it works

With the help of the super friendly local staff, we prepared our boats, put them on water and got in. Zoltán, our teammate got in the boat with the help of a nifty crane next to the pier. All of us wore life jackets, and at least one person of the two in every boat had to know the basics of sailing.

As we were told it was nearly impossible to tip over with the boat but still, the author of these lines was not so sure about that when we tilted 45 degress multiple times 🙂

This is how it went, and this is how it looked:

Everything is given at Agárd what’s needed for a fun and exciting day with or without a wheelchair. Our goal with Route4U is the same. It’s easier to be active, when circumstances are optimal. And when they’re not, you need information to know how to bring the most out of the situation.

Found out more about Route4U here.

Santa has switched from sleigh to wheelchair (from late 2015)

2016-10-052016-09-07 by tibor

(this is a translated article from late 2015)

Santa has already left Lapland… and it depends on You, when he’ll arrive!

Categorize places (Points Of Interests – bars, cafés, restaurants, gov. offices, hospitals, etc.) by deciding if it’s possible to enter with a wheelchair or not. By saving your survey result in our game, you help Santa with 1 km route, on his way from the North Pole. The distance is around 3000 kms to Budapest, so we’ll need you to check on 3000 places if you want him to arrive in time.

All the accessibility information you provide during the game is immediately shown in the Route4U application and online map and is real value to the wheelchair user community.

How does it work?

1. On the main page, click on the bottom-right arrow.

2. Choose the area where you want to play. The system will determine your position automatically, but it won’t always work due to phone and browser settings. Shall this occur, you can set your location by moving the map.

3. Choose the place you’d like to categorize and look for stairs at the entrace.

4. Finalize your choice by choosing one of the three colours.

5. Be proud of yourself, you’ve just created value! 🙂

Meaning of colours

No stairs at the entrance, doorstep is 3 centimeters maximum

There is a maximum of 1 stair at the entrance, not taller than 7 centimeters

There are more than 1 stairs at the entrance, or step is higher than 7 centimeters

Information Accessibility

Did you know that information about places’ accessibility is at least as important as phisical accessibility itself?

There are hunders of thousands of places on Hungary’s online map, but majority of them doesn’t have any info about accessibility. Now with a little cooperation we can achieve huge difference.

How can I join?

You can join the game on guruljszabadon.hu. You’ll hear about the latest news on our facebook page. If you like the initiation, and you suppose some of your friends might be interested in helping a good cause or spreading the word, please invite them too, so we can make the world a bit more convenient place.

Let’s do it Smart!

2016-09-052016-09-05 by tibor

What we do and why we do it, to make the world a better place

For those who’ve been following our work in the last year, it’s clear, that the aim of Route4U is to make the lives of people with disabilities better. But maybe even these followers of ours haven’t realized, that our solution’s impact on the whole of society is significant.

Today 2% of Hungary’s population is with reduced mobility. In towns and cities – since conditions are better – their percentage of the population is even higher. Based on census data, only 7% of working-age disabled people work. This puts huge stress on society. Another, Western European survey’s results show that more than 50% of non-working people with disabilites would love to, if the conditions were sufficient. Younger generations’ access to accessible education helps them grow into adults actively helping society, even on the job market.

Higher incomes of working disabled people, hand in hand with accessible services, result in increased consumption in settlements, which is one of the key factors of growth and development .

Integration is everyone’s business and everyone’s interest, not only local governments’ and of those affected.

Sounds good, but why doesn’t it just work by itself?

Looking at the problem from the views of all affected parties, it’s the lack of information what’s really conspicuous. Those affected do not have the neccessary information on accessible routes, barriers, accessible services/places and alternative routes, especially when they are not in their everyday environment. Decision makers do not have the necceessary dataset to decide the best spots to use the limited funds available for this matter. And the majority society simply does not know the needs and expectations – which are, in majority of cases are easily achievable with minor effort – of those with disabilites.

If the root of all problems is the lack of information, they can be solved by communication and infocommunication means.

How?

The base of all this is city map with accessibility information. We create these, commissioned by local goverments by systemtically mapping sidewalks, curbs, slopes and services of a town or city. Thanks to our innovative technology, this is extremely fast and cost efficient, and also very cheap compared to city budgets. Personalized sidewalk navigation and search of the accessible services is available for the mapped areas shortly after our survey. We involve local organizations and the majority society in the survey. We raise awareness of the importance of equal opportunities with targeted, gamified communication campaigns. Thanks to our awareness-raising communication, it’s not uncommon that shops and other services of the city invest in accessibility plainly for business considerations. Don’t think about thousands of Euros here. Mounting a few Euros, bluetooth enabled disability bell on the outside of the shop not only helps a person in wheelchair, it also raises the prestige of the shop by making others content with the shop owners’ proactive behaviour. It also helps spreading the word and the idea.

Thanks to the wheelchair users actively using Route4U, local governments can see the problematic points in the sidewalk infrastructure, making it possible to plan development or refurbishment priorities based on real-life data. Effective problem management increases voter satisfaction.

In our view, if we plan to achieve fast and spectacular results, we need more complex approach than that was available before.
We are confident that the issue can only be solved, if all parties of society take part in the process, and not because of obligations of law, but for their own interests. It’s not the City Leadership’s duty to know and solve every local problem themselves, but to operate as a catalyst to help setting up a chain reaction, which grows into a self-sustaining system.

Role of the majority society is to realize their own interests in integration and to find opportunities in it. Route4U’s mission is to give platform to the most effective information flow between all actors. This is a “Smart City” answer to the problem of integration. This is why we built Route4U and this is how we’ll continue to build it in the future.

We call it Smart Accessibility.

Please contact us for further information about our solution.