Case study · Madrid

Every EMT stop, also read aloud.

All 5,540 shelters and stops of Madrid's Empresa Municipal de Transportes carry a NaviLens code: blind and low-vision riders find the stop from several metres away and hear lines, destination and waiting time with the free NaviLens GO app.

Young man with dark glasses and a folded white cane under his arm holds his phone running the NaviLens GO app at chest height in front of an EMT Madrid shelter; the glass shows the «Bus information» panel with lines and stop 5400, with a colourful square NaviLens code at the top

5,540

Shelters and posts with NaviLens citywide

March · May 2023

Announcement and citywide rollout

EMT + City Council

Madrid's public bus operator

ONCE · CERMI

Co-designed with the blind community

The client

EMT Madrid
Public bus operator

EMT Madrid is the capital's public bus operator, owned by the City Council. It moves over 400 million riders a year across a network connecting the 21 city districts and key regional interchanges.

On 21 March 2023, EMT unveiled its new digital, smart and universal signage with NaviLens codes, announcing that by May 2023 all 5,540 shelters and stops citywide would be tagged. The project is part of the city's inclusive mobility strategy and was developed with ONCE and the CERMI Madrid organisations.

With this rollout, Madrid joined the list of capitals —alongside New York, Barcelona, Murcia or Las Palmas— that have adopted NaviLens as the accessible signage standard in public transport.

§ The challenge

Making 5,540 stops audible without touching street electronics.

01
A huge urban network to read aloud
EMT runs over 200 lines in Madrid. Stop information —line number, destination, next arrivals, alerts— was designed to be read: panels, mupis and screens. For a blind or low-vision rider, finding the right shelter and confirming the arriving bus depended on asking another person.
02
Find the stop before being able to use it
The first challenge isn't reading the info: it's locating the post or shelter on complex pavements full of street furniture, terraces and works. Without a sign detectable at distance, a cane user can walk right past their stop.
03
One solution for 5,540 points
JCDecaux shelters, municipal posts, interchanges, double and triple bays at Cibeles or Atocha: the system had to work the same everywhere, with a single gesture and without installing new electronics. The NaviLens label meets that bar — it's printed signage, with no battery or maintenance.

Glass EMT shelter on the street with the blue numeric plate «149»; on the roof front, a colourful square NaviLens code stands out on white so the phone app can detect it from across the road

§ The solution

One code per stop, read from metres away with a phone.

Every EMT shelter and post carries a NaviLens label in a standard position (front of the roof on shelters, top of the post otherwise) so it can be detected from the opposite pavement, on the move and without aiming.

Read with the free NaviLens GO app, the rider hears the stop number, lines, destinations and real-time waiting times, plus alerts about incidents or diversions.

The signage coexists with the rest of the panels —pictograms, contrast, large numbers— without taking their place: NaviLens adds a layer of information without subtracting from those who already read the stop fine.

§ On the street

From Cibeles to Banco de España: the same sign at every stop.

EMT shelters at Plaza de Cibeles, with a blue line 14 bus bound for Conde de Casal leaving the stop; in the background the Palacio de Comunicaciones (Madrid City Hall). On the roof front of the shelter, a colourful square NaviLens code

Rider at an EMT stop in Plaza de Cibeles looking towards the next shelter; the sun is high, in the foreground a mupi ad from the «Soy Georgina» series and, in the background, the Palacio de Comunicaciones and the Cibeles fountain

EMT shelter with the numeric plate «34» in front of the Banco de España building on Calle Alcalá; on the roof a colourful NaviLens code stands out next to the stop sign

Plaza de Cibeles with several EMT shelters lined up on the median, a blue bus no. 3262 parked and, in the background, the Palacio de Comunicaciones under a clear sky: one of Madrid's busiest stops, part of the NaviLens network

All stops in the EMT network —simple posts in neighbourhoods, glass shelters on main avenues or interchanges with multiple bays like Cibeles or Atocha— share the same gesture: raise the phone with NaviLens GO, hear the lines and times, and board.

§ Why it matters