Optibus Partners with GreenRoad on the First Safety-Driven Planning System in Public Transportation
- The partnership brings safety data to the early stages of transportation planning for increased passenger comfort and satisfaction
Optibus, a market-leading software platform for public transportation planning, scheduling, and rostering, is partnering with GreenRoad Technologies, the safety telematics leader, to increase passenger safety and comfort by bringing historical road safety data into the earliest phases of transportation planning.
The lack of safety data at the earliest stages of transportation planning means many road and driving hazards are detected only after services roll-out, at the driver-level. This exposes passengers to low-quality, risky services that compromise their safety and comfort and increase the rate of injuries or incidents per million miles. Some operators and agencies increase running times to mitigate accidents, thinking slower is safer, but longer travel times only decrease passenger satisfaction, increase expenses, and harm operational efficiency.
Optibus CEO and co-founder, Amos Haggiag, said:Although public transit is one of the safest ways to travel, thousands of passengers, as well as drivers, pedestrians, and occupants of other vehicles, are still injured or killed each year in bus-related crashes. Many of these incidents could be prevented if safety data was used to plan networks that are safer. Partnering with GreenRoad allows us to do just that, by creating the first-ever integrated planning and safety system for public transport providers.
To reduce risks, Optibus and GreenRoad are empowering operators and agencies to account for safety factors, such as road and ride quality, collisions, injuries, and driver behavior including speeding, sudden acceleration and braking, and sharp turns, at the network planning stage.
On the Optibus platform, planners can harness GreenRoad’s Safety Heat Map to visualize and assess the safety score of existing routes within their network. Planners can re-plan low-scoring routes to avoid hazard areas and increase safety, assess the impact of rerouting on the entire network, and support local authorities in identifying and fixing road hazards. By optimizing route safety, the partnership will reduce the number of injuries per million miles and produce a smoother ride that feels safer to riders, while increasing passenger satisfaction and trust.
David Ripstein, GreenRoad Technologies’ CEO, said:Early insight into route safety enables operators to reduce risks, save lives, and deliver better services to passengers. The combination of GreenRoad’s world-class safety data and telematics and Optibus’ cutting-edge transportation planning software creates a powerful, essential tool for ensuring the safety of mass transit.
Launching on a global scale, road safety scoring builds on Optibus’ commitment to safety through its rostering module that creates quality driver shifts, prevents fatigue, and ensures driver retention and satisfaction. GreenRoad’s advanced driver safety platform is already being used by leading transportation operators worldwide, including Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and coach operator, Coach USA, First Group, KMB and many others, to reduce accidents and risk while improving sustainability and passenger comfort.
This article was originally published by Optibus.
