EasyComeEasyGo: Predicting Bus Arrival Time with Smart Phone

Abstract

Public transport, especially the bus transport, has been well developed in most cities. Thus the technique of bus arrival time prediction has become a research hotspot nowadays. It is a very important subject to improve the precision and reliability of the bus arrival time prediction, reduce travelers' anxieties and waiting times at bus stop. In this paper, we propose EasyComeEasyGo(ECEG), a novel bus arrival time prediction system based on smart phone for passengers who are traveling with bus in real-life scenarios. This study presents an algorithm that uses real-time GPS data from field and takes delays automatically into account for an accurate prediction of bus arrival time. We develop a prototype system with different types of android-based smart phone and actual GPS data from bus route 26 located in Dalian, China are used as a test bed. We have extensively evaluated the ECEG system with the bus route 26 over a month period. Our results suggest that the proposed system achieves outstanding prediction accuracy and gains most travelers' satisfy.