COURTESY WAYSINE
A solar-powered digital sign displays route schedules and rider information for TheBus at the Kalihi-Palama Bus Facility. The sign is the first and only one of its kind in the state.
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A Hawaii technology startup company wants to let bus riders be better informed when their bus will arrive withreal-time display signs at bus stops.
Honolulu-based WaySine LLC is finalizing a pilot project to install wireless solar-powered signs showing bus arrival times at 20 city bus stops in the Kalihi-Kapalama area. They are expected to be up as early as November.
The company has had one sign up as a test at a stop on Middle Street at the Kalihi-Palama Bus Facility for about two weeks.
WaySine was founded in 2012 by Karl Chang, an entrepreneur who helped start VeriFone Inc. in Honolulu in 1981. VeriFone began as an electronic check verification and credit authorization company, was acquired by computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co. for $1.2 billion in 1997 and today is an independent public company.
WaySine said its signs use existing data on bus locations to announce arrival times much like available mobile phone apps, and make that information available to all riders at a stop.
Tsurumi Hamasu, WaySine’s chief financial officer, said the signs will help people without apps or those who don’t know such apps exist. "So you’re not sitting there asking yourself where’s the bus,"she said.
Hamasu also said the company’s signs, which require a half-day of moderate sunlight to run continuously, also can be used for emergency and marketing messages.
The company’s bus sign was selected as one of 11 finalists in an innovation competition to be held by the American Public Transportation Association at a conference in Houston on Monday.
Besides the signs, WaySine is developing network and software solutions to produce real-time passenger information for transportation firms.
