Experiences from an application for safe transport to and from school: A step toward SAFEWAY2SCHOOL

In order to increase the safety for children, with help of a higher degree of control and routine during school transport, an EU-project, SAFEWAY2SCHOOL, started in 2010. This project aims to take the previous study, made in 2008 in Kristianstad, a step further and highlight and enhance the technological aspects of different subsystems in order to achieve a system even more useful. Within the project evaluation of a holistic concept will be done, one of them in the Swedish municipality Örnsköldsvik. In total five buses will be equipped with technical safety solutions. Communication between the system and children will be solved by children wearing a tag that transmit information to the bus unit, making it possible for the system and the driver to know if the child is on their way to the bus. The tag will also be connected to a bus stop unit, warning passing drivers. This system will handle, safe route planning, rerouting of routes, school bus position tracking and monitoring, safety enhancement applications for bus drivers, warning systems for surrounding vehicles and training schemes for school bus drivers. The evaluation will focus on usefulness, effectiveness, acceptance in a user perspective. In addition socio-economic analysis will be done.