For years I have been relying on Access-A-Ride (AAR) as my daily transportation from home to school. I have had multiple problems tracking where my van is and if I am a “direct route.” Over time I have met many other people who rely on this AAR to be their main form of transportation and they experience the same issues of it either being late or not showing up at all. For my Culmination Project I plan to design and code a web based app that streamlines the process and allows the AAR user base to track their Access-A-Ride through their phones.

The app will have a log in screen that the user could enter their client ID number (is a number that users get assigned when you first get approved for Access-A-Ride). When the client ID number gets logged into the system the app will find the corresponding  information of your trip.

AAR is a shared door-to-door service that the MTA operates for the elderly and disabled. I want to design an app that will make the AAR system run more efficiently for both customers and employees. The reason that no one has designed this app before is simply that the system is so bureaucratic that customers accept its negative aspects and try to deal with them without changing AAR.

I can look to previous tracking devices such as Find My iPhone and Uber to assist with the building of my app for public use by the AAR community. My innovation is important because there is currently no app that informs customers about their ride with accurate and updated information.