The Real-Time Bus Tracking System

Abstract

India, a populous country, sees most of its citizens rely on public transport as their primary means of communication. Buses travelling to the nooks and crannies of towns and cities are highly convenient and safe. Public buses are preferred by people of all kinds: from students and office-goers to senior citizens and even the handicapped, as they provide door to door services at menial prices. Along with this, public transport also helps in reducing the carbon footprint and the traffic density by decreasing the number of private vehicles out on the streets. But when it comes to public transportation, time and patience are of the utmost essence. In other words, people experience time loss because of indeterminate waiting at the bus stops. Even though buses follow a fixed schedule, their arrival time is tremendously uncertain owing to traffic and other unexpected happenings such as accidents, weather conditions and so on. This has led to a greater need for an organized public transport service. In this paper, we are reviewing existing systems and proposing a new smart bus tracking system. Any passenger with a smartphone can view the bus routes on the map as well as the current location of the bus number that the user wants to view. GPS (Global Positioning System)- based devices owned by the driver or the conductor of the bus will send real-time location updates as soon as the bus starts which will be sent through a real time database to user devices. In addition to tracking, we will also be reviewing the functionality of estimating the crowdedness on the bus.