Inspiration
We were positively inspired by the keynote given by Garlin Gilchrist II where he explained the fundamental issues with safety and efficiency in Detroit's public transit system. We understood the problems that he described and we were very motivated to solve the issues Garlin put forth. It is our goal to help fix transportation which is so important in our daily lives and is a necessity for all of us.
What it does
This app integrates multiple technologies that we have built from scratch into a simple, user-friendly, Android application to help make safer routes for transportation. It also opens up a communication channel between riders and drivers of buses so that bus drivers can know with exactly when to pick up or drop passengers off. Finally, we have implemented additional safety features to ensure the well-being of our users.
How we built it
The backend of the application is built on a node.js server running on an AWS (Amazon Web Service) instance. The user interfaces with this server through an Android application built with the standard Android SDK and Android Studio. Additional data is found on a web app intended to show more detailed information to passengers and drivers, such as a crime heat map, and the number of passengers waiting to be picked up or dropped off at certain bus stops over time during the day. Both the web app and Android app are built heavily around the Google Maps API and Google Directions API which allow us to safely route passengers around high crime areas and ensure their safety and the efficiency of their commutes.
Challenges we ran into
The most challenging part of our project was the integration of our frontend Android application with the backend node.js server and the various intricacies of using the Google Maps and Google Directions API that were new to us.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are most proud of our ability to integrate with multiple API's to create an extremely connected app that uses both Google's Services and data from the Detroit OpenData Portal.
What we learned
For us, this is our first time using Google's Maps API and Directions API. During the hackathon we learned a lot about how to integrate these API's into both web and mobile apps. We also became much more familiar with Android apps and how they are built and run.
What's next for GoDetroit!
We hope that the development of this application can push forth efforts to improve the public transit system in Detroit. We also hope to improve the application with more safety features such as finding safer spots to wait for buses, and the possibly of rating buses so passengers can avoid being on buses with lower security.
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