Real Time UVA Bus Display System, Expansion of WMATA's Silver Line and its Impact on Northern Virginia

My technical project was a group project where we aimed to help visitors and first years navigate the bus system. Our project integrates both hardware and software to provide users with real time information of bus locations. To accurately display the buses at a given time, we will connect to the open TransLoc API to get the data on the bus’s locations and other information via a Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ which has WiFi capabilities, allowing us to connect to UVA WiFi. Using this data, we will able to send a signal to light an LED on our map to also display which bus line it is. Improving real-time access to bus information can significantly enhance the user experience, especially for first-time visitors or those unfamiliar with the UVA campus layout. Providing a physical display eliminates the need to rely on a smartphone app. In addition, it offers an accessible alternative for individuals who may not have access to data services or who prefer not to use mobile technology. This initiative directly aligns with efforts to make transportation systems more inclusive, as studies suggest that real-time information systems can improve user satisfaction and overall ridership. As more people choose to use public transportation when it is reliable and easy to navigate, the project could contribute to reducing the number of personal vehicles on the road, and in turn, reducing both traffic congestion and carbon emissions. The DC Metro is a great example of a large scale public transportation system. Growing up in Northern Virginia, I personally witness its impacts on the local communities since its expansion in 2014 (Federal Highway Administration). Its purpose being to better connect Northern Virginia to Washington, D.C.. The expansion of the Silver Line is broken into two phases. The first phase will connect to most of Fairfax County, including Tysons Corner and Reston. This is especially important as Tysons Corner and Reston have the highest amount of employment in Virginia and continue to rapidly expand. The second phase will provide access from Reston to eastern Loudoun County, the most notable stop being the Dulles International Airport. This project is significant for many ways. Notably, it represents the first major expansion since the Metro first opened in 2001 (Murray, 2017). In my thesis, I plan to research the Silver Line’s effectiveness and its impact on local businesses and markets using the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) framework (Latour, 2005). ANT explores the relationships and networks between both human and non-human actors in technological systems. Tying this to the WMATA expansion, the Silver line functions as part of a larger socio-technological network. There are many more actors than just the riders who take the metro every day. The metro in which the riders take is another actor. Some more include WMATA employees that operate and maintain the system, urban planners that were in charge of designing the system, and local businesses that surround the metro stops. The expansion of WMATA’s Silver Line has brought significant changes to Northern Virginia. Large-scale transit projects like this one often stimulate economic activity around new stations (Alves, 2017). For example, Tysons Corner, a historically suburban commercial hub has transformed into a more urbanized, transit-oriented area thanks to the Silver Line. Originally designed for car travel, Tysons is now seeing new residential, office, and retail developments planned near the Silver Line stations, fostering a walkable, mixed-use environment. Both the UVA real-time bus display system and the Silver Line expansion project center around improving public transportation. While the UVA project focuses on a local, campus-specific transit solution using real-time data and physical displays to assist users unfamiliar with the area, the Silver Line expansion represents a large-scale, regional project that shapes entire communities in Northern Virginia. Each project, though different in scope, addresses a common goal: facilitating mobility by making public transit more intuitive and accessible. Both projects also share an underlying connection in their potential to reduce reliance on personal vehicles, which helps decrease traffic congestion and carbon emissions. By making transit systems easier to navigate—through better real-time information at UVA or through expanded and reliable rail access in Northern Virginia—both projects work toward building more sustainable and inclusive urban environments. Moreover, each can be examined through socio-technical lenses like Actor-Network Theory, which highlight the complex relationships between infrastructure, users, planners, and other non-human actors.