mAlerts

Coding | Creating a text bot for users to get directions for public transportation in the metro Atlanta area

The Objective

This project was created as a part of the Marta Rider Experience Hackathon in 2018. Marta is the leading public transportation system in Atlanta. Our goal at this hackathon was to provide a tool to create a better way for riders to enjoy their experience on Marta.

My team and I created mAlerts, a text-messaged based service that asks users to enter their starting station and destination, then calculates the fastest route and replies via text to the rider.

Timeline: 36 hour hackathon

Requirements

My teammates and I got together, and while brainstorming, we all came across a similar issue. It was difficult to find a map at many stations. Another problem that we noticed is that although Marta has an application, all the stations are typically underground and it is difficult for the rider to get service. Also, Marta prides itself on being accessible to everyone, and this means some users would not have smartphones. Keeping this in mind, my team and I settled on a text messaging service as the best choice.

The first steps were creating the basic groundwork for the texts. Using Twilio, we set up the framework for basic text interaction: user and bot. My role in the team was to help with the routing algorithm. We built the routing program, taking into account the schedule of all the lines, because some lines of the train do not run at certain times in the day. We then worked as a team on word recognition to track user spelling errors and even created a feature where the user can request for a map to be sent as a multimedia message.

The Product

By just texting "Hey" or "Hi" to the number provided, users could interact with our bot, Martan, and quickly see which train to take. The bot will check for the closest spelling match so accidental typos will be recognized. Martan could also provide a map for our users when there were none available at their stations.

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