Automatic passenger counting to be tested on London buses

[Adlington]

Not exactly hot news, but AFAIK not mentioned here so far....

Transport for London started a three-month trial to test new methods of counting bus passengers on June 8.

The aim is to find the most accurate real-time automatic passenger counting method. TfL believes that this could lead to improved real-time passenger information about bus services and available accessible space, more effective network management in case of disruption, and better forecasting and planning.

The trial will run on seven buses on routes 55, 47, 222, 507 and 521. The following techniques are to be trialled:

• cameras pointing at the bus floor to record footsteps of boarding and alighting passengers;
• real-time analysis of existing CCTV footage;
• sensors at the doors;
• analysis of changes to the bus’s weight and air pressure;
• use of depersonalised wi-fi data.

http://www.metro-report.com/news/ne...er-counting-to-be-tested-on-london-buses.html

 

[Kent Dreamer]

Lothian buses started trialling a passenger counting system back in March.

Automatic Passenger Counting trial on our buses. New technology on our vehicles.

March 6, 2018

We are trialling Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) technology on one of our vehicles. The bus (484) now has a screen displaying the number of seats currently available on the top deck.

This technology uses scanners to detect the number of customers getting on and off the bus to provide real time passenger figures.

If the trial is successful, we’ll be considering the use of this technology across our fleet to assist other aspects of our business including Scheduling and Operational Infrastructure, and for ways to provide real time occupancy information via our App and Destination Screen equipment for staff and customers.

Look out for the ‘counter screen’ on the panel beside the driver.

https://www.lothianbuses.com/news/2018/03/automatic-passenger-counting-trial-on-our-buses/

 

[Adlington]

Yes, but that's in a faraway country, not in London. Therefore it doesn't count....

 

[carlberry]

There have been trials of this kind of thing going back many years. London did it with one of the early rear engine double deckers to try to provide a 'seats available up stairs' indicator.
I cant see any reason why any of the suggested methods will yield a more accurate number then the ticket machine machine could provide!

 

[Qwerty133]

There have been trials of this kind of thing going back many years. London did it with one of the early rear engine double deckers to try to provide a 'seats available up stairs' indicator.
I cant see any reason why any of the suggested methods will yield a more accurate number then the ticket machine machine could provide!

Because in London you only need to tap on so the ticket machine would have no idea as to the number of passengers who have left the bus

 

[CatfordCat]

Because in London you only need to tap on so the ticket machine would have no idea as to the number of passengers who have left the bus

Indeed - and in many places the number of prepaid / network tickets is now high enough for ticket machine data not to be a lot of use in real time - and many urban networks have pretty broad brush if not flat fares, so would never be detailed enough for stop to stop loadings.

There have been trials of this kind of thing going back many years. London did it with one of the early rear engine double deckers to try to provide a 'seats available up stairs' indicator.

Didn't know London had tried this - don't remember seeing a London bus with this.

Some batches of Bournemouth's Fleetlines had a 'X seats available on top deck' indicator on the staircase. Again, don't remember seeing it in action, but have met second hand examples (DLJ xxxL batch) with the kit in place but no longer working. I worked for a while with someone who had worked on the buses in Bournemouth - the kit worked by pressure pads on the staircase - presume it must have registered step A before step B means someone going upstairs and vice versa. Apparently the local kids quickly realised they could louse the system up by jumping over one stair, or jumping up and down on a stair...

London Transport did have a few buses (think it was country area RTs that got moved around) fitted with 'loadmeter' equipment in the 60s - from what I gather, it was a microswitch based backsides on seats meter. I've never seen anything to suggest how accurate this ever was (what with bumpy roads, passengers of assorted shapes and sizes, fidgeting kids and so on, I can't imagine it was great!)

 

[transmanche]

Lothian buses started trialling a passenger counting system back in March.

And TfL last undertook a similar trial (albeit more focused on encouraging people to use the seats upstairs instead of standing on the lower deck) back in 2014.

Here's a Londonist article from 2015 which explains it all.:

The scheme uses the existing CCTV technology and merges it with software that ‘sees’ how many seats are available, projecting the results onto video screens around the bus (two on the bottom deck and one on the top). If successful, it may be extended across the capital on a variety of busy bus routes.

Yes, but that's in a faraway country, not in London. Therefore it doesn't count....

Not bitter much?

 

[Deerfold]

And TfL last undertook a similar trial (albeit more focused on encouraging people to use the seats upstairs instead of standing on the lower deck) back in 2014.

Indeed - I was involved with analysing the results of these - there were 3 different options for the screen downstairs with some showing which seats were available. The results were very good - except that it tried to spot people against the bus seats, so anyone wearing clothing of a similar colour was not seen - in the experiments this was blue. My report did mention that it might not be effective in the Chelsea area.

I'm assuming it's taken so long to get further as TfL disbanded the department that was working on it with lots of redundancies.