POzastávka: information boards at Bratislava public transport stops.
This project has ambition to improve orientation, knowledge and increase interest in the city which we live in, bring motivation for homeland study, natural history, artistic and historical dimensions.
We often walk the streets around many buildings, sites, parks and other “attractions” that could be interesting on closer inspection and would be worth pausing. But due to our ignorance, we do not notice them. If we knew more about them, they would probably get more attention from us. We usually value what we know. And we especially protect what we consider valuable. Awareness is especially important today, when green areas in Bratislava are destroyed for car parks, forests are cut, historic buildings are being destroyed and new buildings are being built in their place. The historical, aesthetic or spatial-urban context is often not taken into account. Thus, values that we probably do not even know about are irretrievably lost. We may find out what we are missing when it is too late. In order to save these values it is necessary to know about them.
The POzastávka project brings some historical and other attractions of our city closer to its inhabitants and visitors. It mainly serves people who are waiting for their bus or tram at stops. It offers them a meaningful use of free time while waiting. And it raises awareness of the city in which they live.
The project places information boards at public transport stops. At this stage especially in the Bratislava – Nové Mesto district. The boards are located in the inner space of the stops. In an interesting way they offer information about the name of the stop – about the location or personality whose name the stop bears.
The text is concise, written in a popular-scientific form in Slovak or English. At stops named after personalities, the text is supplemented by a portrait, at localities there is a characteristic picture. There is also another graphic element – the coat of arms of the New Town, on the territory of which the boards are mainly located. The secondary carrier of information about the stops is this website of the POzastávka project. It is connected to the network of particular stops by QR codes displayed on information boards. Smartphone users thus have access to pages with extended information about the stop and the location in which they are found. Placing the content of the boards on the website also makes this project accessible to people with disabilities, e.g. visually impaired citizens who can read the information using the assistant technologies of their electronic devices.