OneBusAway Adds Transit Rider Surveys

Surveys play a key role in helping transit agencies understand the needs of their riders and ultimately to make transit easier to use. As part of our Google Summer of Code initiative, our talented intern, Amr Hossam, built a new feature for surveying transit riders directly inside of our open source OneBusAway Android app.

In this project, we wanted to build short travel survey functionality into the OneBusAway apps that would allow riders to rate aspects of service or answer questions about how to improve their experience on transit. While OneBusAway has been a beloved app for our riders for more than a decade, at its roots is the conduct of research to examine the impacts of real-time traveler information on the attitudes and behavior of transit customers. This new functionality would allow us to grow this research arm of OneBusAway for the first time in years.

Amr described his work in his pull request:

During my participation in the Google Summer of Code 2024 program, I had the opportunity to develop a critical feature for the OneBusAway (OBA) Android app aimed at addressing a significant gap in transit service feedback.

Transit agencies often struggle to obtain direct feedback from riders, which impedes their ability to improve service quality and accessibility. This challenge is particularly acute for women, who encounter unique issues such as safety concerns and complex care-related travel patterns that are not always adequately addressed.

To bridge this gap, my project introduced a travel survey feature within the OBA app. This feature allows riders to provide direct feedback on their transit experiences, with a special focus on understanding and enhancing the transit experiences of women.