Citation

Cafiso S, Di Graziano A, Pappalardo G. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2012; 48: 2251-2261.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.1198

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In twenty of the countries composing the European Union (EU20), there are approximately 800,000 buses, equivalent to 0.35% of the total road vehicle fleet (230 million vehicles), while 10% of road trips are made by bus. Given these rates, bus crashes account for very few events, involving less than 1% of total road fatalities (ERF, 2010). It is evident that despite the significance of crashes involving buses and the assumption that public transport improves road safety by reducing vehicular traffic, few studies are available in the literature on crash data involving buses. The paper presents an overall analysis and comparison of crash data related to bus at European level. A more in depth study carried out at Italian National level provides a useful summary of practice in the area of bus safety management. The work focuses on the expertise of fleet managers to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches and systems to reach higher safety standards. A survey form was defined referring to relevant factors affecting safety related to the driver (training, skills, performance evaluation and behavior), the vehicle (maintenance and advanced devices) and the road (traffic conflicts and urban road environment).

Results provide useful information on the state of the art and current practices of urban public road transport in the area of road safety. Start inhibition, automatic door opening, and bus materials and internal architecture were unanimously considered the top safety items for bus passenger safety. Brake assistance and vehicle monitoring systems were also generally considered very effective.