Bay Area GTFS Accessiblity Report website featured on Seamless Bay Area

The Bay Area GTFS Accessibility Report Website, created by BlinkTag, was featured in an article on Seamless Bay Area about improving accessibility across Bay Area Transit. The Bay Area GTFS Accessibility Report provides a detailed analysis of wheelchair accessibility information, text-to-speech fields and other key accessibility metrics which are updated daily.

“Unfortunately, because they are guidelines, they are non-binding and compliance is first on the chopping block due to constrained resources and staffing. This is very clear when one views the “Bay Area GTFS Accessibility Report”, an audit of accessibility data reported by Bay Area transit agencies prepared by BlinkTag Inc. The majority of Bay Area transit operators report wheelchair accessible stops, but there are gaps in other data. This leaves a lot of room for improvement on the table for reported accessibility data. Brendan Nee, with BlinkTag Inc, noted from his experience consulting and developing transit data solutions for smaller operators that staffing capacity restricts the ability of operators to report data, accessible or not. Consequently, local agencies also rely on consultants and third-party vendors to provide GTFS reporting capabilities, and an agency may be hamstrung when their vendor is not interested in updating GTFS reporting to comply with other standards.“

This article highlights some of the challenges that Bay Area transit agencies face in ensuring accurate and comprehensive accessibility data, particularly within the GTFS framework. Our team at BlinkTag is dedicated to assisting these agencies by creating tools and reports that reveal gaps in accessibility data. This helps bring attention to areas where improvements can be made to enhance the experience for transit users with disabilities.

Our work on this report underscores the importance of collaboration between transit agencies and technology providers like BlinkTag to bridge these gaps. By supporting Bay Area transit agencies in the adoption and reporting of GTFS standards, we aim to empower agencies with the data they need to drive informed, accessibility-focused improvements.

We appreciate Seamless Bay Area for spotlighting this critical work and look forward to continuing to support local transit agencies in making Bay Area transit more accessible for all.