An ideal bus route would offer highly predictable journey times to travellers so that the same journey taken at the same time of day on different occasions would take the same amount of time. While there are many sources of variability in journey times such as traffic conditions, passenger boarding and offloading time, and the impact of traffic lights, as well as interference between buses themselves, e.g., queueing at bus stops, changing lanes, or crossing junctions. To address this issue, this project will explore how emerging technologies such as machine learning, vehicular communication, cruise control systems, and the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) might be used to improve bus reliability, possibly offering advice on driving behaviour to bus drivers via an advance driver information system. The specific approach to be taken is not defined and hence the project will require both creativity and intuition.
School of Computer Science and Statistics