Abstract
Systems trying to solve mobility issues in cities, such as high levels of accidents and traffic congestion, have been developed worldwide. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) services focused on urban public transport are an option contributing to solve such issues. A few intermediate cities in the Latin American context have developed some of these ITS services, which are mainly based on a tracking system for public transport vehicles. Such tracking systems have great limitations in terms of coverage, availability, and operational cost. In addition, they are commonly isolated mobility solutions, which cannot be easily integrated with other mobility services in the city because they are not based on an ITS architecture. In order to improve public transportation systems in intermediate cities, we proposed the development of an IoT-based public vehicle tracking system, using LoRa (Long Range) and ITS services. In this research, we developed the proposed system as a proof of concept. We designed and executed some experiments, in order to adjust parameters of the LoRa technology and to test its operation. This article presents the methods we followed for developing the proof-of-concept model, a description of the experiments, and their results. The results lead to conclude that the LoRa technology and an IoT-based system are adequate for implementation of a mobility service such as the one we propose, once important technical restrictions related mainly to Line of Sight (LoS) are considered. Key aspects for implementation were also identified for deploying the service (as a prototype) in the city of Popayán.
Highlights
Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide [1]
We present the results obtained in the three experiments performed during system deployment and two experiments performed with the already deployed system
Work e proposed tracking system for public transport vehicles through an IoT-based system, LoRa technology, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) services is suitable for implementation in an intermediate city, if some important technical aspects of LoRa operation are considered. ese technical aspects were identified in the experiments carried out in this work
Summary
Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide [1]. Colombia has a high percentage of deaths (between 27 and 28%), due to traffic accidents in recent years [2]. is problem is serious in intermediate Colombian cities (e.g., Neiva, Pereira, and Popayan), accounting for 36% of deaths. Cities in the Latin American context have remarkable issues with regard to traffic congestion. In Colombia, 25% of passengers suffering injuries in traffic accidents are passengers of public transport vehicles [4]. Such data are quite worrisome if we consider the proportion of public vehicles in Colombia. E most common public transport vehicles in intermediate cities in Colombia and other developing countries are buses and microbuses, with a capacity ranging from 12 to 20 passengers [9]. Us, it is important to establish improvement actions to control public transport vehicles in intermediate cities without public transit exclusive lanes. Similar situations have been identified in other Latin American countries such as Peru, Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador [5,6,7,8]. e most common public transport vehicles in intermediate cities in Colombia and other developing countries are buses and microbuses, with a capacity ranging from 12 to 20 passengers [9]. ese vehicles share the road with all the other vehicles, increasing the risk of traffic accidents. us, it is important to establish improvement actions to control public transport vehicles in intermediate cities without public transit exclusive lanes. e aim is to reduce the death rates due to traffic accidents and to contribute to lessen traffic congestion in these cities
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