DART from your plane to a train
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
Airline passengers arriving at Love Field in Dallas, Tex., have a convenient way to plan their use of Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s public transportation system before leaving the airport.
DART and CHK America have installed a ConnectPoint® Interactive Touchscreen Kiosk at Love Field. Described as “the first display of its kind placed in service by DART,” the kiosk provides interactive information to help passengers transition from airline travel to DART rail and bus services. The interactive kiosks provide route information and “wayfinding messages” that users can easily read and understand.
The web-enabled ConnectPoint® Interactive Touchscreen Kiosk integrates with tracking and location systems, scheduling systems and other DART information systems to provide comprehensive information to customers. Touchscreen technology allows for intuitive interaction with the information to explore transit options and to create specific routes, including an overview of entire routes, next-departure times and detailed local mapping for each stop. The kiosks also provide trip-planning tools that include detailed travel directions for public transportation, cars, bicycling and walking. Texting and email options are also included for easy transfer to a mobile device. The kiosk also has the ability to send route-deviation push notices in real time and generate revenue via location-based advertising by leveraging smart phones at a “decision-making point” such as an LRT or bus stop.
“DART is always looking for ways to better engage riders and potential riders at all points of contact, and this interactive map is a perfect tool to provide information on how to ride and where customers can go as soon as they land at the airport,” said DART Vice President of Marketing and Communications and Chief Marketing Officer Nevin Grinnell.
“DART is a recognized leader for customer-focused innovation,” said CHK America President and CEO Rick Wood. “Deploying the ConnectPoint® Interactive Kiosk at Love Field is a significant step forward in providing airline passengers with the information they need to successfully transition to DART’s outstanding transit services.”
CHK America says it has has invested a significant amount of capital and human resources into developing its new suite of digital products, marketed under the ConnectPoint Digital banner, “that will appeal to today’s tech savvy riders, providing a higher level of customized information to meet their ‘on the go’ planning needs.” Additional products include solar- or battery-powered ConnectPoint® Digital Bus Stops that can be mounted directly to poles; the ConnectPoint® Dashboard that displays current transportation options using existing infrastructure and can be deployed on any screen with a variety transportation feeds including Uber, Lyft, Bikeshare, etc.; and The ConnectPoint® SmartStop™ featuring two 13-inch digital bus stop displays at the top of the pole, and a 10-inch interactive tablet at waist level, providing “flexibility to transit agencies wishing to provide the most current information to their customers.”
Established in 1999 as a subsidiary of The Cook Hammond & Kell Group, one of the largest independent cartographic production companies in the world, CHK America describes itself as “the premier best-practice provider of customer information solutions for the U.S. public transportation industry. Providing award-winning wayfinding solutions to transit agencies for more than 15 years, the company’s 8 Second Rule has set the standard for communicating complex public transit information to customers quickly and efficiently after CHK America’s research revealed customers become frustrated with any service that takes longer than eight seconds to convey pertinent travel information. Under the leadership of CEO Rick Wood, a recognized authority in wayfinding strategies, CHK America now engages more than two billion people throughout the U.S., 20% of public transportation customers. Between customized information design and purpose-built hardware fabrications, CHK America is providing solutions for many of the largest multi-modal transit agencies in the U.S., from WMATA to DART to LA Metro in Los Angeles.”
