Investigating the Effect of School Bus Stopping Process on Driver Behavior of Surrounding Vehicles Based on a Driving Simulator Experiment

School bus safety has attracted widespread attention with economic development and the improvement of overall quality of the population. However, violations of school bus regulations and school bus-related crashes often occur. Limited research has been conducted on the impact of the school bus stopping process on surrounding drivers’ behavior. This study provides a driving simulator experiment to explore drivers’ behaviors during the school bus stopping process under different traffic law awareness status, traffic volume status, and initial location status. Eight variables about behavior decision and kinetic parameters were assessed for analysis by a logistic regression model and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results show that the mean speed decreases and the number of people complying with the regulations increases after publicizing the regulations. The proportion of surrounding vehicles in the acceleration state increases, especially under the scenario that the traffic volume is large and the initial distance is far. This indicates that the enforcement of the regulations may stimulate unsafe driving behavior. The findings of this study could help policy makers to better understand the prevalence and compliance of current school bus stopping regulations among drivers and support improvements in the practical application of the regulations.

A CAN-Bus Lightweight Authentication Scheme

The design of the Controller Area Network (CAN bus) did not account for security issues and, consequently, attacks often use external mobile communication interfaces to conduct eavesdropping, replay, spoofing, and denial-of-service attacks on a CAN bus, posing a risk to driving safety. Numerous studies have proposed CAN bus safety improvement techniques that emphasize modifying the original CAN bus method of transmitting frames. These changes place additional computational burdens on electronic control units cause the CAN bus to lose the delay guarantee feature. Consequently, we proposed a method that solves these compatibility and security issues. Simple and efficient frame authentication algorithms were used to prevent spoofing and replay attacks. This method is compatible with both CAN bus and CAN-FD protocols and has a lower operand when compared with other methods.

An Analysis of the Reliability of a Bus Safety Structure on Carrying Out the Numerical and Experimental Tests

In the paper, the reliability of a spatial tubular structure of a bus safety frame formed of different steel profiles is discussed. A methodology for the bus safety structure modeling is presented herein by applying numerical methods that enable us to simulate virtually a test for assessing bus rollover crashworthiness according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Regulation No. 66, and also to assess and ensure the reliability and safety of the structure under operating conditions. The simulation has been performed by applying the mixed method of kinematical analysis and finite elements. In the course of the calculations, physical and geometrical non-linearity of materials was assessed. In addition, an experimental rollover test according to UNECE Regulation No. 66 was performed in this work, striving to verify the provided methodology for modeling by applying numerical methods. For the experiment, an identical safety structure and a rollover stand (identical to the one used in modeling) were used. The rollover test was shot by a Phantom v711 high-speed camera. In the paper, the results of kinematical and dynamic analysis from applying the finite element method and the ones of the experimental test, as well as their comparisons, are provided. It is assessed whether the developed safety structure model is reliable and suitable for use.

ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE MATERIAL PROPERTIES AND THEIR POSSIBILITIES TO USE THEM IN BUS FRAME CONSTRUCTION

Energy consumption and the emission of harmful particles have increased significantly in recent decades. The constant development of transport poses an increasing threat to the environment. The search for alternative energy-saving solutions is closely linked to the development and improvement of new vehicles, reducing their negative impact on the environment. Fiberglass or carbon fiber are among the most promising materials that can reduce weight in all types of vehicles. They are also much easier to recycle than steel. Fiberglass or carbon fiber composite materials are widely used in a variety of applications: construction, ships, and trains. Vehicles and buses are no exception. These innovative materials are used not only for interior elements but also in constructional units for the production of light duty vehicles. Meanwhile in buses these material are not yet used in safety frame. Bus safety frames are made out of steel. Therefore, in this work the fiberglass composite material from which the tubes are made by pultrusion process would replace the steel tube in the safety frame construction of the bus. Such technology could reduce the weight of the bus safety frame by about 20%. Other parameters would also be affected by weight reduction: safety: bus would be less overloaded, the braking distance would be reduced, the center of gravity position would be closer to the ground; environmental: lower air pollution due to lower CO2 emissions; economic: lower fuel consumption. However, before using such technology, it is necessary to determine the properties of the composite material. Properties were determined by tensile and shear tests (ISO 527-2:2012 and ASTM D5379/D5379M-19). Comparison tests of different materials (tensile and crushing tests) were also performed. According to the experimental results, conclusions were drawn regarding the possibility of using fiberglass for the bus frame.

Transport Safety Mechanism of School Children Using IOT based Smart System

Most of the Students in Sultanate of Oman are using bus to reach their schools. Bus considered as one of the convenient way of traveling. As most of Students are traveling from home to school or vice versa by bus. Safety is the biggest concern and issue. Bus driver and parents are responsible for providing safety and security to the schoolchildren’s. Many of children went to school and never returned home afterwards. This is because the child feels tired and then sleeps after a hard school day. The bus driver did not pay attention to the presence of a sleeping child in the school bus and the bus driver closes the windows and the door, causing suffocation and death. There are also a lot of accidents that might happen on school buses, so researcher are working to find the way of tracking school bus which is very important for the monitoring of location and track students throughout journey from and to school. This research paper presents IOT smart transportation system for a children school. The system consists of IR sensors to calculate the number of students, RFID card and RFID reader to read student data and attendance recording as well as MQ3 sensor for alcohol sensing and to ensure the safety of the driver. It also contains a mobile application to get notifications and messages and shows other information such as the time of riding the student on the school bus and coming off the bus you can also take the latest coordinates and thus follow the bus via Google Map.

Application of a Hurdle Model with Random Effects to Explore the Relationship between Operational Characteristics and Safety Performance

This study used the bus incident data in Victoria, Australia to establish the relationship between operational characteristics and the safety performance of bus operators. A series of count models were investigated to account for methodological challenges, including excess zeros and panel data structure. The empirical results highlighted the different effects operational characteristics had on the risk and prevalence of bus incidents. Operators of smaller size, providing non-route services and operating in regional areas had a lower risk of having any reported incidents compared with larger route operators and operators in areas of higher accessibility. In cases where at least one incident had been reported, incident frequency was higher for operators with higher fleet total travel distance, older fleets and better roadworthy performance (this factor being counterintuitive). Findings from this study provide safety regulators with evidence-driven opportunities to enhance bus safety, including improving incident reporting practices, the establishment of a comprehensive database for heavy vehicle operators, and specific efforts targeted at older fleets.