Designing a smart transport system application for South Indian traffic scenarios — A modern approach towards digitalizing the transport systems

The need for mobile applications is growing as mobile phones have become an integral part of our day to day life. As the country is moving towards digitalization, the proposed smart transportation system facilitates commuters to go cashless by employing some digital payment methods. Strengthening the transportation system is a basic amenity of any smart city. Moreover, the transportation based applications play a major role in our day to day lives as there is a need to track our public transports automatically to reach destinations on time. In this paper, we develop a GPS-based bus tracking system which allows users to make use of the small and mini buses in cities, especially south Indian cities. We design an android based application which provides mechanisms to track the small buses and also know the buses which are in close proximity to passenger locations at any instance. Also, the paper provides solutions to know if the buses are crowded using a counter placed inside the bus. The application displays the levels of crowding in the buses nearby using appropriate conventions. Thus, the application encourages the passengers to use the public transportation which in turn may solve the problems of increasing fuel consumption, growing traffic congestions and pollution problems.