Safe and Reliable Public Transportation Systems (SALUTARY) in the COVID-19 pandemic
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The aim of the SALUTARY (Safe and Reliable Public Transportation Systems) system is to employ modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to proactively tackle crowding situations in public transportation (PT) systems,as a consequence of the limitations due to COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it is proposed to adopt in the various segments of the PT system (buses/trams/trains, railway/subway stations, and bus stops) suitable crowd detection techniques based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, which measure in real-time the number of users, in order to: (i) monitor and predict crowding events; (ii) adapt in real-time PT system operations, i.e., modifying service frequency, timetables, routes, and so on; (iii) inform the users by electronic displays installed in correspondence of the bus stops/stations and/or by mobile transport applications. The SALUTARY system can be implemented incrementally, as an add-on to the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) solution already in use by major PT companies operating in urban areas. The system is designed as a flexible platform, which can be used to deliver, in addition to the innovative crowd detection/management functionalities, also additional services, such as on-line ticketing, vehicle access control and reservation in severely crowded situations, and evolved crowd-aware route planning.
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