Collecting bus locations by users: A crowdsourcing model to estimate operation status of bus transit service

Abstract

This paper describes a crowdsourcing model to collect bus locations from onboard passengers. Bus location service, or realtime bus tracking service, is getting more and more general these days. Some models are proposed to build such services. One approach is facilitated every vehicle has a function to position itself with location sensor, such as GPS receiver, and transmits its own location with time to the server. Another is an environmental approach that bus detectors are deployed along the route to detect ids of nearby buses and transmit to the server. These models are well-established and practical. However, it is not easy to install such services especially for small operators because costs on devices and data transmission are relatively high. This paper proposes that a sustainable model even for small operators to provide bus locations to passengers. The key idea of the proposal is that collecting bus locations is not by bus operators but by onboard passengers. To collect them, a smartphone application of bus tracker is provided to public. The application shows current locations of buses in operation on bus transit services, while it detects nearby buses around users and transmits bus ids with time and location of detection to the service platform. That is, locations of buses are collected by users.