VICTORIA – BC Transit is pleased to announce it plans to purchase and install a Trekker Breeze + automated voice annunciation device on every bus in the Victoria Regional Transit System starting this fall.
The implementation will occur in stages starting with 25 buses being equipped in August to conduct final road tests. The remainder of the fleet will be outfitted, beginning in September.
“This product supports the needs of our visually-impaired customers and our operators while also respecting taxpayers,” said Manuel Achadinha, President and CEO of BC Transit. “I thank the Canadian Federation of the Blind and Unifor 333 for working with us to find a cost effective product.”
“Members of the Canadian Federation of the Blind are very pleased that BC Transit is taking concrete steps to equip our buses with automated GPS stop annunciation devices,” said representative Oriano Belusic. “Five of us had an opportunity to test drive a demonstration bus that worked very well and with some fine tuning the new system will definitely make public transit more accessible for blind riders and many others.”
“This product will allow our operators to focus on safe driving while still providing good customer service,” said Ben Williams, President of Unifor Local 333.
The first-edition Trekker was one of the original products reviewed by the joint Unifor 333 / BC Transit committee, formed to investigate technological solutions. The manufacturer, Humanware, recently released a new product that addresses all of the limitations observed during previous road tests, including GPS connection time, signal strength in urban areas and accuracy of announcing intersections and landmarks.
The Trekker Breeze + provides a cost-effective, readily available and proven voice annunciation product that is used by visually-impaired persons around the world. The key benefits of this device are its simplicity, affordable price, reliability when used in moving vehicles, minimum amount of programming and low maintenance.
Note: Please refer to the Media Backgrounder and [REPLACED EMBEDDED “Document_C” LINK [[Asset Included(Id:1403643473242;Type:Document_C)]] for more information on the project.
Media Contact
John Barry
BC Transit, Manager of Corporate and Online Communications
media@bctransit.com
250-995-5830
