A DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT OF A PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FLEET

Background: The present paper deals with the problems of a public transportation fleet management in public transportation operators. A management concept is proposed based on a real-time acquisition of parameters of public transportation passenger exchange.

Methods: The relevant research utilised video materials documenting the processes of passenger exchange in public transportation. The proposed methodology is based on a dynamic real-time measurement of passenger streams. A characteristic feature of the measurement methodology applied is that the data is collected outside the vehicles, with a CCTV camera used per access point. Demand for the public transportation service are calculated using the image processing.

Results: The derived demand characteristics allow not only an estimation of the magnitude of traffic streams in public transportation but also their qualitative description. Such an approach permits a flexible design of the transportation offer to adapt to the demand. This allows matching the timetables to the density functions describing the demand for public transportation within the space of transportation networks. In addition, based on the results of this type of research, a public transportation operator may despatch the vehicle base in a flexible way. For each run of a bus or tram fleet, basing on the registered passenger traffic streams, it is possible to rationally despatch the vehicles with suitable capacity.

Conclusions: A system of this type is capable of determining the quality of work of the public transportation. With the ITS systems being introduced still more widely, the proposed methodology allows the design and implementation of dynamic timetables.