An Offline Framework for Handling Automatic Passenger Counting Raw Data

Knowledge of ridership data on bus routes is pivotal for the quality and efficient operational planning of public transport companies. Automatic passenger counting (APC) can represent a powerful resource for supporting this activity, because it can provide a databank of accurate counts. However, relevant challenges, such as the matching of data to the bus stop, data validation, tackling anomalies, and building intelligible performance reports, must be faced in order to make APC data a mainstream source of information. This paper proposes an offline framework for addressing these challenges. In order to illustrate a possible application of the framework, its use for setting bus frequencies is investigated. The results are represented by easy-to-read control dashboards composed of tables and graphs. The methodology is experimentally tested with data records provided by the bus operator CTM in Cagliari, Italy. Finally, we discuss the implications on service rearrangement.