Transport for London (TfL) has published an invitation for tenders to provide passenger-counting technology for trial on buses.
TfL notes previous trials involving CCTV have lacked accuracy. The tender document says: “Bus crowding information for TfL passengers isn’t currently aligned with our vision of where we want to be.
“The primary objective of this project is to generate and make live bus crowding data available to bus passengers for better decision-making and empower them to feel ‘in control’ of their journeys.”
TfL says accurate live passenger data would enable passengers to make decisions about their journey and prepare them for what to expect, inform service controllers and planners, enable traffic light-control systems to favour crowded buses; and give drivers an indication of the crowdedness of their bus when their view is obscured.
The information required as part of the scope of the project is: number of passengers boarding at a stop; number of passengers alighting at a stop; number of passengers on the bus (occupancy on departure of the bus from that bus stop); loading (the total occupancy as a percentage of capacity); occupancy of wheelchair area (occupied/available); type of occupant in the wheelchair area.
TfL subsidiary London Bus Services Ltd is open-minded as to the sorts of technologies that could address the requirements.
