Talking bus stops have been erected in Bristol as part of National Deafblind Awareness Week which occurred this month. The blind and the deafblind can use electronic key fobs to trigger spoken information from boxes housed at the stops. An automated voice reports the current time, bus arrival and departure times, route and the stop number. The system is reliant upon Real Time Passenger Information (RTI) which uses satellite tracking of the buses and relays information to the boxes at the talking stops.

Though the technology has been in partial use before, this Bristol scheme marks the first instance of a comprehensive city-wide venture. Executive Member for Transport and Development control, Dennis Brown, said ‘Many people who are blind or visually impaired may be deterred from using buses because they can’t read the timetables at bus stops or see from the real time displays how long they have to wait until the next bus arrives.’ Hopefully this interactive technology may create a precedent to be followed around the country.