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Apr 7, 2010
How to make bus deployment more effective
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IN REFERENCE to the general dissatisfaction over the overcrowding of public buses here, perhaps there is a way to better manage the situation.
On board every bus there is already a passenger counter. Each time someone taps his ez-link card, it is a count. The difference between those boarding and getting off will give a "live" figure of the passenger load throughout the bus route.
It should not be too difficult to add an attachment to the card reader to send this information in real time to a controller. Collection of this information would allow better deployment of buses on any particular route.
Over time, this dynamic information can be used to develop a predictive algorithm to pre-empt the need.
It may not be viable to deploy more buses from the terminal, which may be some distance away from the congested part of the bus route. But it may be possible to deploy additional buses parked somewhere along the route. These buses can assume any service number that ply along that particular route as needed.
Depending on the detected loading, a bus could be parked where the extra loading would be. This will improve effectiveness.
To help drivers not familiar with a particular route, GPS devices could be installed that are pre-programmed with route information.
Bobby Yee
How to make bus deployment more effective
<!-- by line --><!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
IN REFERENCE to the general dissatisfaction over the overcrowding of public buses here, perhaps there is a way to better manage the situation.
On board every bus there is already a passenger counter. Each time someone taps his ez-link card, it is a count. The difference between those boarding and getting off will give a "live" figure of the passenger load throughout the bus route.
It should not be too difficult to add an attachment to the card reader to send this information in real time to a controller. Collection of this information would allow better deployment of buses on any particular route.
Over time, this dynamic information can be used to develop a predictive algorithm to pre-empt the need.
It may not be viable to deploy more buses from the terminal, which may be some distance away from the congested part of the bus route. But it may be possible to deploy additional buses parked somewhere along the route. These buses can assume any service number that ply along that particular route as needed.
Depending on the detected loading, a bus could be parked where the extra loading would be. This will improve effectiveness.
To help drivers not familiar with a particular route, GPS devices could be installed that are pre-programmed with route information.
Bobby Yee
