BusNet : a prototype implementation of an Intelligent Transportation System for Winnipeg urban transit

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are being used in many cities of the world. In this project, as a subset of such a system for the city of Winnipeg, an instance of an Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) is introduced and the implementation of a prototype of it is described. Such a system could be used to access to the real-time information of the operative buses of the city transit system. Using low price GPS receivers, specific computer applications, and wireless communication/ telecommunication systems capabilities, as well as, the Bluetooth wireless technology a positioning system is designed and employed to transfer the real-time information of the locations of the operative buses to a database. The information gathered in the database is provided to the end users connected to the Internet. The information is also provided to be used by the transit system monitoring and management centre. Fuzzy logic concepts in reporting the real-time positioning information and Neural Network methods in creating transit system timetables are discussed. The system architecture, following Canadian and US national ITS architecture, is introduced and closely investigated. Such a scaleable system could be a part of an integrated Winnipeg Transportation Management Center (TMC) in future.