GPS based Public Transport Arrival Time Prediction

Abstract

Users of public transport, in developing countries, face a lot of problems such as long waits on bus stops and often no bus arrival after a long wait. One of the novel solutions to the problem is to display the expected arrival times of the buses on respective bus stops. Many prediction systems have been developed based on different techniques.This paper presents a public transport arrival time prediction system relying on real time Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data rather than the old-fashioned techniques. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) are used for developing a Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) and communication between different nodes respectively. On server side, an efficient and optimized algorithm is developed to predict the arrival times accurately. Many test drives were done on a selected route under various test conditions. And resulting predicted times and their deviation from Final Traveling Time (FTT) at each bus stop are shown in graphs at the last of the paper.