Skip to main content

Launch of the Assistant project

The European Assistant (Aiding SuStainable Independent Senior TrAvellers to Navigate in Towns) project which will develop an ICT application to help older people to make unfamiliar trips on public transport has been launched. The three year project will develop an application for the home PC and smartphone that will be designed to help older travellers plan their public transport journeys and then receive guidance during their journey. This guidance will help them to find the bus that they need, warn them w
July 24, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe European Assistant (Aiding SuStainable Independent Senior TrAvellers to Navigate in Towns) project which will develop an ICT application to help older people to make unfamiliar trips on public transport has been launched. The three year project will develop an application for the home PC and smartphone that will be designed to help older travellers plan their public transport journeys and then receive guidance during their journey. This guidance will help them to find the bus that they need, warn them when to get off the bus, when and where to change to another route, and will also provide assistance if something goes wrong.

The application will be designed to help users who are unfamiliar with the local public transport system either because they are visiting somewhere that they do not know well, or because they are beginning to use public transport again after losing the ability to drive. It will also offer help with the difficult last mile of a journey from the point at which you get off public transport to your final destination.

The project involves eight partners from five countries with an overall cost of €2.7 million (US$3.27 million). It is a project that is supported by the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme, which is funded by the 1690 European Commission and the National Contact Points for the AAL programme in each partner’s country. The Assistant application is expected to come to market by 2017.

Related Content

  • July 17, 2012
    Progress towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure
    Kallistratos Dionelis, General Secretary of ASECAP, makes the case for a lightly regulated, staged progression towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure environment, the achievement of which should look to engender cooperation between the public and private sectors. Such an approach, he says, is the only real path to success.
  • January 20, 2012
    Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an
  • February 2, 2012
    Economic crisis needs non-partisan perspectives to stimulate growth
    Kary Witt, President of the IBTTA and Pat Jones, Executive Director and CEO, talk about the need to put aside partisan perspectives in order to deal with the current economic crisis
  • June 4, 2015
    The future looks bright for ITS
    Professor Eric Sampson talks about the past successes of ITS, its potential for the future and the challenges the industry faces. If anybody should know when Intelligent Transport Systems started that person is Professor Eric Sampson, a visiting professor at both Newcastle and London City Universities. Having spent 40 years working for the UK’s Department of Transport and other public administrations, Professor Sampson now supports the European Commission on ITS systems and advises ERTICO ITS-Europe and ITS