Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
IBus (London)
iBus is an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system to improve London Buses using technology installed by Siemens. The system tracks all London's buses, providing passengers with audio-visual announcements and improved information on bus arrivals, as well as triggering bus priority at traffic lights.
The system was introduced following concerns in 2005 that London buses "fail deaf people". As a result, the iBus system was announced on 16 January 2006, initially being tried on route 149 for eight weeks. After successful initial tests in 2006, radio presenter Emma Hignett was chosen to record all announcements after popularity in a user survey, being rolled out on all London buses between 2007-09. As of 2024[update], Transport for London have begun to replace iBus with an improved system.
Upon boarding the bus, for example, route 177 serving Peckham, iBus plays the announcement: "177, to, Peckham" and corresponding text appears on the visual displays. As the bus approaches the stop, the on-board system will announce and display the bus stop name. Since March 2014, the space below this name shows the current time. When a passenger has requested the bus to stop, this is replaced by the message "Bus Stopping". Sometimes when an Underground line is closed, or special events take place, the space below would also display information about that type of event occurring and to inform passengers to take alternative routes to reach their destination. When the approaching bus stop nears a cycle lane or slip road, additional announcements will be played to remind passengers cross them with care. For example, a bus arriving near St.Thomas' Hospital will say: "St.Thomas Hospital, County Hall. For your safety, please cross the cycle lane with caution", and the following message will scroll across the dot matrix indicators:
An example of another version being:
Similarly to the London Underground, iBus has a feature that tells passengers to alight at a key stop, which is near a key place that the bus will not serve. For example, a bus arriving near the Tate Modern art gallery will say: "Lavington Street. Alight here for Tate Modern", and the following message will scroll across the dot matrix indicators:
Each bus contains a Microsoft Windows–based computer that has the details of all 19,000 bus stops in London. The system has over 30,000 announcements for 700 bus routes.
Alongside route information, iBus can also play 'operational' pre-recorded announcements to passengers on board the bus.
The iBus system aims to provide a better fix on bus locations than the old Selective Vehicle Detection (SVD) system. iBus can locate every bus to an accuracy of about ten metres, or its distance from the nearest stop by around ten seconds. It does this using several instruments:
Hub AI
IBus (London) AI simulator
(@IBus (London)_simulator)
IBus (London)
iBus is an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system to improve London Buses using technology installed by Siemens. The system tracks all London's buses, providing passengers with audio-visual announcements and improved information on bus arrivals, as well as triggering bus priority at traffic lights.
The system was introduced following concerns in 2005 that London buses "fail deaf people". As a result, the iBus system was announced on 16 January 2006, initially being tried on route 149 for eight weeks. After successful initial tests in 2006, radio presenter Emma Hignett was chosen to record all announcements after popularity in a user survey, being rolled out on all London buses between 2007-09. As of 2024[update], Transport for London have begun to replace iBus with an improved system.
Upon boarding the bus, for example, route 177 serving Peckham, iBus plays the announcement: "177, to, Peckham" and corresponding text appears on the visual displays. As the bus approaches the stop, the on-board system will announce and display the bus stop name. Since March 2014, the space below this name shows the current time. When a passenger has requested the bus to stop, this is replaced by the message "Bus Stopping". Sometimes when an Underground line is closed, or special events take place, the space below would also display information about that type of event occurring and to inform passengers to take alternative routes to reach their destination. When the approaching bus stop nears a cycle lane or slip road, additional announcements will be played to remind passengers cross them with care. For example, a bus arriving near St.Thomas' Hospital will say: "St.Thomas Hospital, County Hall. For your safety, please cross the cycle lane with caution", and the following message will scroll across the dot matrix indicators:
An example of another version being:
Similarly to the London Underground, iBus has a feature that tells passengers to alight at a key stop, which is near a key place that the bus will not serve. For example, a bus arriving near the Tate Modern art gallery will say: "Lavington Street. Alight here for Tate Modern", and the following message will scroll across the dot matrix indicators:
Each bus contains a Microsoft Windows–based computer that has the details of all 19,000 bus stops in London. The system has over 30,000 announcements for 700 bus routes.
Alongside route information, iBus can also play 'operational' pre-recorded announcements to passengers on board the bus.
The iBus system aims to provide a better fix on bus locations than the old Selective Vehicle Detection (SVD) system. iBus can locate every bus to an accuracy of about ten metres, or its distance from the nearest stop by around ten seconds. It does this using several instruments: