Environmental Monitoring in Bus Transportation Using a Developed Measurement System
Apostol Todorov, Petya Gicheva, Vanya Stoykova, Stanimir Karapetkov, Hristo Uzunov, Silvia Dechkova, Zlatin Zlatev
Abstract
Air pollution and travel comfort in public transport is a significant problem as it can cause health problems for passengers. There are no sufficiently developed and researched monitoring systems for measuring the quality of the environment in public transport, which makes it difficult to assess the extent of the problem and implement effective solutions. This study presents the results of measurements made with a developed system for assessing air pollution and environmental quality in urban transport. Two time periods were defined based on air pollution and traffic levels, and informational features were selected for bus stops and buses. Noise was found not to be an informative feature, but vehicle acceleration should be considered in environmental quality monitoring. A quadratic discriminant classifier combined with principal components was shown to accurately classify high and low pollution time periods. Further research is planned to investigate the relationship between air pollution and travel discomfort and to develop effective strategies to improve air quality in urban public transport.