MIT's futuristic, networked bus stop design

MIT researchers are designing a futuristic bus stop called the EyeStop. A collaboration between architects and engineers in the SENSEable City Lab, the design calls for large multi-touch e-ink screens, ambient displays, and an array of environmental sensors. From MIT News:

Riders can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, surf the Web, monitor their real-time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. They can also post ads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board at the bus stop, enhancing the EyeStop's functionality as a community gathering space.

“The EyeStop could change the whole experience of urban travel," said Carlo Ratti, Head of the SENSEable City Lab at MIT. "At the touch of a finger, passengers can get the shortest bus route to their destination or the position of all the buses in the city. The EyeStop will also glow at different levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus."

In addition to displaying information, the bus stop also acts as an active environmental sensing node, powering itself through sunlight and collecting real-time information about the surrounding environment.

“EyeStop is like an 'info-tape' that snakes through the city," said project leader Giovanni de Niederhousern. "It senses information about the environment and distributes it in a form accessible to all citizens.”

EyeStop

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anonymous

Two places to look at bus stops:

Portland OR : simple LED displays tell you when the next bus is coming, which is really the only thing you need to know. They are also wheelchair accessible and come up the the bus at grade, shelter from the constant rain, and often feature dedicated ZipCar parking spots and bike racks.

Curibita Brazil:Decades old bus system designed to optimize bus traffic, pay before entering, at grade, safe shelter.

Both of these are real solutions that should be implemented with all speed everywhere.
Anonymous

@#9, I’m glad I’m not the only one who immediately thought that… Now we just have to hope Moriarty doesn’t show up.
Anonymous

cute, but it seems to totally fail to address the realities of the function of the device. it might work on disneyland ride or an istore, though not in an actually city. that and it consumes a great deal more energy and resources and emits more toxic waste in production and use than the structure it replaces.

i’d like to see a nice shelter with three walls made of adobe and a grass roof, source of fresh water, a comfy sitting place, and friendly humans that help you get to where you are going. ever notice how the more sterile the setting, the less humans interact with each other?

though as mentioned above what will more likely happen is integration of buses into the social network so your cheap, durable handheld will direct you to the nearest electric smart bus or social network hitch.
bcsizemo

@4 Mojave

No. The real world has NO place in higher education. That is the sole reason higher education exists. If you think engineers actually learn anything that can be DIRECTLY applied to the real world, well you might if you’re going Phd, but not Bachelors… You learn vaguely how to apply theory and ideas to the real world, but having real world experience is a completely different animal.

Look at all this high tech robots on here. 95% or more come from private companies. Sure they have people who have been doing this for decades, but all most all college level robotics I have seen have left me unimpressed. It is nice to see when a college and company combine and you see some good application of technology on an existing platform…
wynneth

‘Eyestop’ could also be immediately made useless by vandals who attack it with bricks.
Anonymous

The general public can be reduced to the metaphor of a pack of rabid baboons on peyote.
This device would be garbage in a matter of days on the public streets of a major city.
Itsumishi

Wow these sure are a lot fancier then bus stops in Melbourne. Most of which consist of nothing but a pole with the Bus route number on a sign. Not even a fricking time table to tell me that the bus service stops at the convenient time of 5pm. Just when people might be, I dunno getting off work!

Public transport…. grumble grumble grumble… public transport arg… stupid Connex… arg..
Nadreck

We already have the cheapo version of this north of Toronto on the regional bus system “Viva”. It’s got a “time to next bus” display and a touch screen gizmo dispensing tickets. The “time to next bus” display loses it’s mind if a bus breaks down and becomes stationary as it works off of some kind of radio transmitter on the bus and the crappy programmers never thought of this case.
zandar

what would make more sense is something like this that you can carry around. And you wouldn’t want to discriminate against the poor. Hey, why don’t they set up a phone line and hire a person to answer questions like this? You know, like we used to do.
Halloween Jack

Good grief. I thought that that “World of Warcraft hut” was a silly idea, but this… this was thought of by people that have never, ever had to depend on a bus for transportation in their lives. Here’s a brilliant-ass idea, MIT geniuses: make a bus stop shelter that actually keeps people dry when it rains, rather than regurgitating old Star Trek tropes.
Anonymous

#28

The impressiveness of robotics produced by multi-billion dollar corporate research projects compared to ten cent spit and duct tape undergrad projects doesn’t really indicate how relevant or irrelevant higher education is. There are better examples.

Law school, say, is all about “teaching you to think like a lawyer” while professional practice teaches you to practice law.
Anonymous

Great idea, but society just isn’t ready for it.
instead of designing yet another flashy teched-up version of something that works perfectly well anyway, engineers should focus on something that would it possible to have this sort of thing-
i.e. vandal-sensing GPS chip implanting guns mounted on the bus stop
dragonfrog

Anon @21 – that is an absolutely beautiful improvement to the bus stop. Every bus shelter should have one!
Moriarty

Interactive map, approach warning, and maybe bulletin board I can see. The other stuff, I don’t really see what it has to do with being a bus stop. I mean, why not incorporate an espresso machine? I like espresso.
Anonymous

Does it have Bluetooth for wireless taggers? Or will kids still have to use their analog spraypaint and car keys to deface it?
Anonymous

Not being one to squelch inventiveness and “thinking out of the box”, I am somewhat hesitant to say that this looks suspiciously like the “Arch” from the Holodeck on Star Trek Next Generation. Oh…. I see another person (anonymously) thinks the same thing. Here is a pic of the “Arch”.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Arch
clockbound

Can’t wait until they try to put one of these up in Central Square in Cambridge and the multi-touch screens are quickly tagged with a marker and the e-ink screens are carved out with a pocket knife.
Anonymous

Has any noticed this looks one hell of a lot like The Arch on the holodeck in ST:TNG?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Remember that thingie at the entrance to the thingie on that show? This totally looks like that.
dewexdewex

Buses? In America? Land of the free? Praise the lord and pass the Prius.
angusm

Those bus shelters will be just perfect for very very nice neighborhoods that don’t have any disaffected teenagers with bricks or cans of spray paint.

I can’t help seeing that picture as a ‘before’ image. In the corresponding ‘after’ image, all the glass that hasn’t been broken is extensively tagged, and the display of user-supplied “communityâ€relevant information on a digital message board” is a scrolling list of names and telephone numbers for the local hookers.
dr.hypercube

For v1.1 – substitute a countdown to arrival (by bus line, for those cities that have multiple lines per stop) rather than ‘glow intensity’. Interpreting glow may be tough – noontime?! – a countdown clock (w/ status text if the countdown halts?) would be more betterer.
eviladrian

It’s sad that the main thing that stops us from making beautiful, useful and fun stuff like talking bus stops, World Trade Centers and space elevators isn’t any technical obstacle but the certainty that idiots will come along and smash them…
Takuan

then learn materials that can’t be smashed. Do you stop building houses because of termites?
Brainspore

As an academic design exercise this is cool. As a real-world solution I’m sure even the designers know that it ain’t gonna happen for the reasons mentioned above.
Anonymous

Maybe they should incorporate some kind of lightning zapper device to shoot potential “disaffected teens” in the face before they damage it.

Or maybe MIT ought to just focus on locked neck-brace explosive units to enforce a civil society.

Or maybe just build suicide booths – a la Futurama – and call them “bus shelters”.
Anonymous

“Computer, Arch.”
dross1260

I still smell urine.
schmod

The design showed here looks much more practical:
http://www.daktronics.com/ProductsServices/Applications/Transportation/MassTransit/BusStation/Pages/default.aspx

Provides plenty of shelter, is stylish, and has a simple LED display to show when the next bus will arrive.

(Seriously, though. Putting one of those LED signs at each stop, and making sure there’s also a map of the system at the stop should increase ridership immensely. I can’t stand that none of the places that I’ve lived have had good public transportation systems.)
Anonymous

Let’s go back to the best design, from Winnipeg (think -40) in the 1960s. 100% forest green clapboard, with one small window facing the bus lane, and a heater under the bench. Lots of carved intitals, but little destruction because even the toughest juvie would freeze without the shelter. These plexiglas things last a few weeks before being trashed.
mackenzi

How do you use this bus stop? I would end up walking. Does Virgin make walking shoes? Y’know, sneakers?
seanpatgallagher
My 4-year-old inner-child’s critique:
- The transparent walls will be immediately defaced.
- The touch-screens spread germs.
- The numbers on the side are inscrutable.
- The open design allows wind and rain into the enclosure, defeating its primary purpose.
- The razor-sharp seat discourages use rather than encourages use
My Suggestions:
- Redesign the enclosure to actually keep out the wind and rain.
- Scrap all the interactive features and provide free-wifi so people can look up information on their own mobile device
- Make the countdown-to-arrival obviously a countdown-to-arrival.
- Make the seat usable by the elderly. They’re the people who need it.
- Include an emergency call box or similar device for stops in isolated areas.
- Integrate the architecture of the stop with the surrounding city architecture.
-Sean
bookninja

The main problem with this futuristic bus stop is that it still involves buses…
Anonymous

This is a nice thought experiment. In practical use, probably not in the U.S., but maybe in other cultures where they aren’t routinely neglected and abused.
wolfiesma

So happy to see some attention paid to the lowly bus stop. I don’t see it mentioned, but does the material encasing offer good UV protection/shade? We really need that in places that get so hot in the summer. There are a lot of places I see with no bench, no shade. Plopping a few of these down along the bus routes would be a big improvement and possibly entice more people to use public transport.
SkullHyphy

Why and how would any transit agency pay for this? Why would I, as a rider, want to actually touch a screen when printed map technology already exists and is probably cheaper? Why are so many people here saying that we can all check bus arrival times on our cell phones? I can’t afford a fancy phone; that’s why I’m riding the bus! Muni in San Francisco has LED signs that display the next arrival time at selected stops w/ remarkable accuracy. But then the “seats” are actually sadistic rotating platforms from Super Mario Bros. that people avoid sitting on.
wolfiesma

@BookNinja, et al,
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/fast-buses-vs-light-rail-you-decide/
Anonymous

And gosh, maybe a bus-stop shelter could incoporate some… well, you know… shelter?

Like maybe an overhead panel that isn’t tranparent, to provide some shade?

Idiot gearheads. It’s not a “community gathering space.” It’s a shelter for people waiting for a bus.

If I’m waiting for a bus I don’t need an e-ink display to monitor my real-time exposure to pollutants. I need some shade and some protection from rain and snow and wind.

All that other crap is money being wasted on frivolities, that could better be used to provide improved bus service.
MattBD

Shouldn’t that be iStop? It certainly looks like something Apple would make.
Brainspore

Most concept cars aren’t practical either, but they are fun to look at and a great platform for exploring new design ideas that might get integrated into real models at some point.

Badmouthing this project because it probably wouldn’t work in the real world is like going to an auto show and complaining that the Batmobile doesn’t meet DMV safety standards.
Clay

These would be safe from vandalism in Chicago. MIT’s lack of political connections to this town would ensure that they’re never built.
Stefan Jones

Squeeze all that gagetry into an easily replaced and serviced armored box so it can be retrofitted into existing bus shelters.
Anonymous

There must be a lot of Trekkies on that design team. This reminds me of the entrance to the holodeck in Star Trek TNG
Anonymous

Another useless gadget. Here’s an idea: How about an MBTA bus that arrives on time? Maybe the MIT labs could create a bus that doesn’t smell of vomit, urine and the bath-allergic? Something useful, for a change!
Anonymous

Nice enough, until it gets trashed. Of course, the MBTA (the Boston-area transit agency) is already running at a huge deficit, and if they did have the money, they should upgrade the subway first. Green Line, I’m looking at you here.
Anonymous

You know what this bus stop needs? A swing.

http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/08/bruno_taylors_playful_spaces.html
teufelsdroch

How about you track every bus with a cheap GSM, then display their movements on the system map? Make a little iphone applet, and a website, and you’ve really got something.
Anonymous

The bus stop needs a train arriving every 7 minutes
Anonymous

Quick: don’t think of two drunk idiots smashing this bus shelter. Oops, too late. You’ve shamefully made this great concept irrelevant.

Maybe MIT students should focus on meeting a more rudimentary requirement from transportation shelters. They can take the red line to Fields Corner in Dorchester and marvel at the beautiful new station, designed in MIT’s hometown, Cambridge for one of the poorer neighborhoods in Boston.

The students should arrange this excursion on a rainy day. For all its glass-and-steel structures and majestic awning, the station’s platform doesn’t fulfill the basic function of providing shelter. That’s like writing code without talking to the end user, but much worse.
overunger

Things like this were supposed to be every where ten years ago. The future’s really dragging it’s heels to get here. :/
eclectro

I still smell urine.

Nothing that a can of spray paint can’t take care of.
JL Bryan

“WTF!?? Do these MIT students not see the bus stops all around them that are covered in graffitti, trash, stickers,etc.?”

Well, naturally the vandalism will create a need for lots of camera surveillance at each bus stop. Maybe even like those in England where the cops shout at you through speakers: “Hey, stop spraypainting…no, seriously, stop…please…”

Or better, make the bus stop speak for itself: “Oh, please stop vandalizing me, it hurts my feelings…”
Hanglyman

Some of it’s been said already, but:

Provides almost no shelter.

Shiny panels and mostly-glass construction are ridiculously vulnerable to vandalism- one brick and half the shelter is scattered all over the ground.

Bench can hold 2 or 3 people at most, the rest of the space along the back wall having been sacrificed to allow two back entrances to the bus shelter. Many bus shelters I’ve seen actually just have a brick wall or fence or something directly behind them, and a shelter like this wouldn’t even be accessible through those two entrances if placed in one of these common locations.

Electronic bulletin board permits more invasive and annoying advertisements, utilizing motion and possibly sound.

We actually have some bus stops with similar features in Boulder- a simple LED sign that gives estimated times for bus arrivals, powered by a solar panel. I believe it also displays the current temperature. But even these are made to be fairly cheap, small, easily replaceable and durable. Even in a city where the bus system is well-developed and maintained and widely used, the maps get defaced and the glass panels get smashed on a regular basis.
fergus1948

An “active environmental sensing node?” WTF?
I’m hearing Nathan Barley –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4mpJumHU-w