PONS - Paradigms for the Optimization of User Guidance in Road Traffic

While usage of public means of transportation is widely supported by mobile assistance services calculating routes, notifying delays, or providing online tickets, there is hardly any systemic assistance for the footpath to and between public means of transportation, especially for people with disabilities.

By experience gained in prior projects related to barrier-free navigation, the project consortium has realized that this gap in the mobility chain is due to deficiencies regarding

  1. Provision of information,
  2. orientation, and
  3. provision of services

for users of public means of transportation. There is a lack of concepts for orientating at traffic nodes and for user guidance by foot, in order to reach the desired vehicle as quickly as possible without detours or individually perceived obstacles.

PONS (Latin: “bridge”) deals with these deficiencies in the mobility chain and develops (based on the results of prior projects) new paradigms and technical systems for user guidance by foot, considering individual requirements for journeys and guiding users context-sensitively. It builds a bridge to existing systems or to recent research results in the field of public transportation and is considered an emancipated mobility approach serving people with physical disabilities as well as children, elderly people or humans with cognitive impairments.

The role of KI-I is not the technical development. KI-I is responsible to support the consortium members to make information accessible and understandable (Easy-to-Read) for the target group.

Project partners

  • Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik – Software Engineering, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz (Projektleitung)
  • FH-Joanneum ITM
  • Institut Integriert Studieren, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
  • OÖ Verkehrsverbund-Organisations GmbH
  • Wiener Linien
  • Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs
  • Kompetenznetzwerk KI-I
  • 50Plus GmbH