Video surveillance has now become a common technology installed in public transport vehicles. In a survey conducted by Axis Communications, it shows that about 97 percent of the respondents, based in 30 countries, have already installed security cameras in their vehicles. However, even with video surveillance, it does not solve the below mentioned problems that are being faced in public transportation.

Public transportation is an industry that can be vulnerable to accidents and crimes.  Though video surveillance gives insights into the security inside a vehicle, it still does not address many other problems faced during a journey. It is also important to derive insights from the journey and use it for continuous improvement of the processes.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways through which video analytics can help public transportation.

• Eliminate Overcrowding: During peak hours, transportation vehicles can get overcrowded. Constant overcrowding can cause damage to the performance of the vehicle and at the same time affect the passenger’s comfort and safety. By way of people counting, an alert can be triggered to the driver when the passenger limit exceeds the set threshold. This insight can help the driver to regulate the crowd. A mobile application for passengers or an LED display at the boarding station can also notify the passengers about the occupancy inside, before they board the vehicle.
• Time Management: Video analytics can also help the authorities and drivers to understand the time taken to complete each journey. The cameras start recording as soon as the ignition is turned on. Based on previously recorded data, VMS system can predict peak traffic hours. So each journey can be mapped and assessed to further improve the process and provide better service to commuters. This will help drivers and backend team to understand the reasons for the delay in reaching a destination.
• Analyzing Behavior: Driver’s behavior can also be assessed with the help of video analytics. The dash cam, working along with an accelerometer can detect harsh breaking, acceleration, and sharp turns, which points to the fact that the driver is not in full control of the vehicle. The authorities can get visuals and see if the driver is in an inebriated state. At the same time, passenger behavior can also be analyzed to improve safety of co-passengers.
• Ensuring Safety: Dash cams with analytics can help the driver to detect any person or object ahead on the road, which will help in avoiding accidents. Rear cam can also detect other vehicles in the close vicinity and can alert the driver to avoid tailgating incidents. In case of school buses, the rearview mirror cameras with motion sensing capabilities can detect if students are trying to stick out their hands or head out of the window, it can trigger an alert to the driver.
• Face recognition algorithms can help pick up any miscreants or suspects who have a criminal background. By face recognition, the image is captured and is matched real-time to a database on the server side, that has been previously recorded. This will further increase safety in public vehicles.
• Detecting Blind Spots: There are spots nearest to a vehicle that are out of the sight of the driver. Blind spot detection systems integrated with the VMS system equipped with high resolution cameras, apart from radars and lasers can help to pick up motion or any activity in the spots where the driver is unable to see. This will ensure safety and help to avoid accidents.
• Capturing Incidents: In unfortunate cases such as accidents, the recorded incident can be used as evidence in the court of law. This can help the authorities when they are faced with lawsuits.

Video Analytics will make public transportation safer and better, and at the same time give insights into each journey to improve the service for the daily commuters. Accidents can also be avoided and the safety provided can also encourage more people to use public transport.

Check out our whitepaper on Smart Transit solutions, to understand how you can leverage big data and video camera modules to design an intelligent transportation system.