In field assessment of safety, security, comfort and accessibility of bus stops: A planning perspective

There is a wide literature focused on how to design new bus stops, but the research on how to review and assess quality and safety of existing bus stops is, so far, still less developed. Therefore, this paper highlights the need for in field inspections of existing bus stops and illustrates a possible methodology to assess and review them. The paper further develops a Road Safety inspection methodology for existing bus stops. Particularly, starting from the inspection methodology, the paper describes how it is possible to handle data collected during bus stops inspections to perform a more comprehensive review of the bus stops, in terms of Road Safety, Security, Comfort and Accessibility levels. The technique was successfully applied to some bus lines in the Province of Brescia (Italy), and can be easily transferred to other contexts. Through the use of a Geographical Information System (GIS), informative layers were built, and thematic maps were realised. The assessment can then be used by technicians and decision makers to plan and prioritise interventions on the infrastructure.