Inspiration
Public transit directions usually focus on the fastest route, but the fastest route is not always a usable route. For riders who depend on elevators for mobility, arriving at a MARTA station and discovering an elevator is out of service can disrupt an entire trip. We built AccessMARTA to make accessibility part of the route-planning process from the beginning.
What it does
AccessMARTA is a mobile-first web app that helps riders plan more accessible trips across MARTA. Users select their starting and destination stations, and AccessMARTA checks accessibility conditions along the route. When an elevator outage affects the standard route, the app alerts the rider and recommends an alternative accessible route. It also compares the standard and accessible options so riders can immediately understand why their route changed.
How we built it
We built AccessMARTA as a web application using MARTA transit information and current accessibility alerts. The application processes station and route information, checks the stations involved in a trip against known elevator issues, and presents the results through a simple mobile-first interface. The frontend provides route selection, trip details, accessibility warnings, and a visual comparison between the normal and accessible routes.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was that accessibility information is not always provided in the same structured format as traditional transit data. We had to think about how to collect elevator status information and connect those alerts to individual stations and routes. Another challenge was keeping the scope realistic for a hackathon. Instead of trying to recreate a complete transit application, we focused on one important question: Can the rider actually use the route being recommended?
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud that we turned a real accessibility problem into a working, easy-to-understand solution within the hackathon timeframe. AccessMARTA can identify elevator outages that may make a normal MARTA route inaccessible and show riders a more accessible alternative. We’re especially proud of the route comparison feature, which makes the impact clear by showing that the fastest route isn’t always the route everyone can actually use.
What we learned
We learned that building accessible technology is about more than adding accessibility features to an interface. Accessibility can influence the underlying decisions an application makes. We also gained experience working with transit data, transforming real-world information into usable application data, and designing around changing conditions such as elevator outages.
What's next for AccessMARTA
We would like to expand AccessMARTA with a system-wide live accessibility map, community-reported accessibility issues, additional mobility considerations, and more advanced rerouting. Our long-term goal is to make AccessMARTA an accessibility layer for public transportation that could eventually extend beyond Atlanta. The fastest route isn't always the accessible route. AccessMARTA helps riders find the route they can actually use.
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