A low cost Bus Seating Information Technology System (BusSIT)

What is it about?

In this paper, we report on the design, implementation and testing of an Internet of Things-based system, named Bus Seating Information Technology (BusSIT) system, which dynamically determines vehicle occupancy while the bus is in service.

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Why is it important?

An instrumented bus gives the possibility to remotely determine the number of people travelling in near real-time whilst also capturing useful data about passenger origins and destinations. This is important for bus operators for planning purposes. They will benefit from an improved control over the use of their resources. For example, tracking and identification of unofficial pickups/drops by bus drivers is difficult to detect for bus operators. The bus tracking module combined with the seat occupancy and passenger count systems in BusSIT enable bus operators to get the seat occupancy, passenger count, pickup/drops, stops and itinerary details both in real-time and historically. Passengers could additionally benefit from the enhanced operational data made available to them through internet-based passenger information portals – most likely through smartphone apps and large screens at heavily-used bus stops.

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