Experiencing the startup way of life with the Route4U team

2018-02-192018-02-19 by tibor

Route4U team Timea Orban accessibility route planner navigation

Hi everyone! My name is Timea Orban and I’m the new sales and marketing associate at Route4U. After going through the 5-stage application process, I got accepted to the scholarship programme of Bridge Budapest, which means that now I have the opportunity to work on the Route4U project for at least 6 months. I started in the beginning of October on the job to increase sales and spread the word about the initiative. Here you can read my first impressions of the company!

The first month in deep water as part of the Route4U team

The last month or so turned out to be a great journey as a new member of a talented, hardworking team, and if I ever had doubt about joining a small tech startup now I know that it’s the best thing that can happen to a graduate. As opposed to rigid hierarchy, strict schedules and boring meetings of a multi-national corporation, I’ve found encouragement and opportunity to grow.

On my first day at Route4U I was as nervous as anyone would be starting their first ever job. Of course, I had some internships and experiences already, but this seemed totally different. I was becoming a tax-paying real-life adult. On that day, the company had just moved to the new office at Kalvin tér. Well… it wasn’t much of a move anyways, we just quickly claimed our seats at the desks, I put my UCL mug in the cupboard and jumped right into it! However, that’s okay, because I’ve quickly realised, that all you really need is your team and a laptop to create something great.

The team welcomed me, my enthusiasm and my ideas with open arms, which was great for someone like me, who cannot stand monotonous work for long. I wrote quotes, I met with potential partners, created content for the website, talked to users but most importantly learned a lot about a startup’s “way of life”. I’ve observed how they try to perfect their product based on feedback, and how the operations work. I also learned that they work so well together, because they are friends, not just colleagues. For my birthday, for example they brought Champaign and chocolate, which I did not expect. This safe and caring environment breaths innovation. And that’s what gave me the courage to initiate we go to a validation event organised by Mol and Design Terminal. The founders, Peter and Tamas trusted me and my colleague Tibor to go check it out and so we did. Here’s a photo from the event:

Mol selection camp

We came back even more enthusiastic with very positive feedbacks so we decided to try and apply to Mol’s startup selection camp, which we found out of at the event. Out of 75 startups, we got in along with the 11 other contesters, to get the chance to work with Mol. Therefore, Tibor and me, we spent 3 days at the A38 boat trying to figure out how we should cooperate with Mol and on what project exactly. One of the speakers pointed out that a startup trying to collaborate with a big corporation is like a mouse trying to negotiate with an elephant, because they are just so fundamentally different. However, if they are able to find the right balance, the startup can bring invaluable innovation to the firm in exchange for stability and infrastructure. It was a great experience since I had the opportunity to work on pitches, strategies and mission statements, which will definitely be beneficial in the future.

I also had the chance to attend at an award gala, but let the story be the topic of the next blogpost!

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!

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.

Our fast and cost-efficient accessibility mapping at Sziget Festival

2016-09-012016-08-31 by tibor

“Sziget” is held every August in Budapest, Hungary and it’s been voted best European Major Festival multiple times. The 25th Sziget attracted over half a million visitors from all over the world, a small percentage of them were wheelchair users or members of other disability groups. All the stages and venues, camping areas, bars and fast-food restaurants are located on an island of the river Danube, hence the name “sziget”, which translates to “island” in Hungarian.

Sziget accomodated an Ability Camping with big, cleaned-up camping spots, accessible toilets/showers and they had also built – together with the company of the same name – an “Ability Park” where abled and disabled festival-goers could walk in their peers’ boots by trying games, solving quizes, drawing, walking in a maze, climbing walls and cycling blindfolded.

Festival nights can be quite chaotic, where accidents happen 🙂 Everyone with broken, bruised limbs or other movement-impairing injuries ended up in the Ability Camping. These people, together with other wheelchair users, could use Route4U, our iOS smartphone application to search for and navigate to accessible venues, toilets and lookouts inside the festival’s huge area. They could use the app in Budapest, and also in their own cities, after arriving back home. Find out more about Route4U here.

Survey

The island is a recreational area throughout the year with patches of forest, muddy or gravel paths and lots of grass. Our first step was – since we use OSM data in our maps – to check and verify the already available path and sidewalk data of the island. After our field survey, surface smoothness data were added to the network. Just one day before Sziget opened, we surveyed the stages, art installations, food and drink places, and other venues. We even ventured to the Northern tip of the island, where people could swim in the Danube and enjoy the cool shades of the riverside forest.

All the Points of Interests (POI) in Route4U have an accessibility (entrance) and an accessible toilet attribute. We had only set these “green” on the venues without steps, and on the few accessible toilets and showers, to make sure our users find what they were looking for: accessible places in the festival area. All the “grey”, not yet verified POIs on our map are waiting for community feedback. After they are evaluated, they appear in the application with their new colour.

Even though the festival area is not yet connected to the Budapest Route4U sidewalk network, we surveyed routes from the festival entrance to low-floor public transportation stops.

Use and feedback

We reached our goal: Route4U was the best festival venue finder smartphone solution for Sziget 2016. After a rainy night some of our users even marked osbtacles, such as huge puddles or untraversable muddy spots. In these areas, our route planning function worked just fine, as the suggested route evaded the problematic areas.

We received some useful feedback too: for colourful events like music festivals, the map needs to be merrier too, especially our icons (POIs). Go ahead and download Route4U here, we have accessibility data available in your city too.

Sziget in pictures: