Expert opinion on bus transport safety management using the Delphi technique

摘要

Despite the significance crashes involving buses and the assumption that public transport improves roadsafety by reducing vehicular traffic, few studies are available in the literature on crash data involving buses.With the goal of evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches and systems that can be applied bycompany management to address higher safety standards, this paper integrates the available literature with apoll among bus safety managers about the factors affecting safety.The panel of expert participants was selected from the managers of Italian public transport companies, engagedin providing urban bus service. A Delphi process was used to examine the level of concordanceamong the participants. The experts were asked to respond to twelve questions related to bus safety, subdividedinto three main areas: (A) driver training, skills, and performance; (B) traffic conflict and urban roadenvironment; and (C) vehicle maintenance and devices, including advanced technology.The results show that, in general, the majority of the proposed items were considered highly effective forbus safety. A consequence of this homogeneous consensus was a less univocal ranking of the top items.The use of the Delphi technique and the Kendall test of concordance were appropriate and effective foraddressing and evaluating the maximum level of agreement among participants in the pool.The final results of the investigation show that start inhibition, automatic door opening, and bus materialsand internal architecture are unanimously considered the top safety items for bus passenger safety. Brakeassistance and vehicle monitoring systems are also generally considered very effective.Bus driver inattention/fatigue is considered, above all, to be the first cause of road crashes. With respect tovulnerable users, data indicate that passenger unloading and pedestrian crossing near bus stops are the mostdangerous actions.