Driving Standards compliance
Description/Objective
On rail systems, driving can be quite strictly controlled – and at the extreme it can be semi-automated or even fully automated. By contrast, very little direct control can be exerted on driving standards or style in the bus sector. Engine governors can be used to limit the speed of the vehicle, but this can only be set at the maximum permitted speed of the vehicle for the operational area.
Compliance of driving standards on buses can only be achieved by a regime of monitoring, detection of poor practice and/or violations, and subsequent enforcement – i.e. ‘detect and deter’.
ITS applications for driving standards compliance are complementary to on-the-road checks and other traditional methods. These applications record information for downstream analysis, investigation and action through traditional channels.
ITS-supported Driving Standards Compliance applications consist of:
- Detection of excessive speed
- Detection of sharp acceleration or deceleration
- Detection of excessive pitch and roll, sharp turns
- Detection of poor driving practice
Technologies, data and resources
Technologies used for Driving Standards Compliance include:
- Detection of excessive measured speed from in-vehicle instruments (speedometer) or from unusually short travel time between points (from the GPS or CAD/AVM system)
- Detection of sharp acceleration or deceleration from in-vehicle instruments
- Detection of excessive pitch and roll from gyroscopes
- Detection of tailgating and other poor driving practice from forward-facing CCTV
- Detection of dangerous conditions caused for passengers by CCTV inside the vehicle
Data measured from the GPS and CAD/AVM system is captured by the system and relayed to the central database for subsequent processing. All other information is usually stored by the in-vehicle device, and recovered either manually or by wireless/radio communication. CCTV images are usually recovered manually, both due to the high data transfer requirements and the possible need for continuity of evidence.
Some systems are designed to automatically begin recording, or to record to hard memory, when triggered by events such as sharp deceleration (indicative of avoiding action or of collision).
Advantages and Cautions
The primary advantages of Driving Standard Compliance modules are to:
- provide universal detection of specific poor practice or violation of driving standards
- capture data in a cost-effective way
- generate reliable records for use in investigation and disciplinary processes
- generate records which can be utilised in court, both for enforcement processes and as protection against spurious/fraudulent claims
The principal cautions in relation to Driving Standard compliance are:
- Pervasive monitoring results in information overload. Efficient procedures are required to screen the data, and to recover/archive the relevant information
- Investigative, enforcement and disciplinary processes should not be excessively automated or metric-dependent.
- Monitoring of driving standards should not become completely dependent on the ITS systems. Manual methods of monitoring and detection should not be discontinued entirely.
Relevant Case Studies
Florence, Prince William County