T
he acronym V2X may appear at first glance to be an element of a complicated calculus equation, but industry experts say vehi- cle-to-everything technology promises to solve
a variety of problems that have vexed yellow bus fleet managers and drivers for decades. Sean Slyman, director of connected services at Navis- tar, said several different technologies within the V2X universe (vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-grid) are evolving in the U.S. and globally. “Vehicle-to-vehicle, V2V, is just that and relates to the transfer of data between vehicles. It can use cel- lular technology. What’s different is that it doesn’t go from my vehicle to a cell tower to you. It broadcasts out. Vehicle-to-infrastructure, V2I, allows the vehicle to communicate with traffic signals and other infrastruc- ture,” he explained. “There’s also vehicle-to-pedestrian, V2P, and vehicle-to-network, V2N, in which a vehicle accesses the network for cloud-based services, which is also known as V2C or vehicle-to-cloud.” Slyman continued, “From the global standpoint, there’s
what’s called C-V2X, which is cellular-vehicle-to-ev- erything, and it’s based on 5G technology. This looks to be the [Federal Communications Commission] stan- dard going forward in the North American market. The big advantage of C-V2X is that it can provide virtually instantaneous direct communications in safety-critical conditions and take advantage of mobile communica- tions infrastructure for less urgent communications, such as route planning.” Most connected vehicles are currently on 4G tech-
nology, C-V2X radios, or short-range to medium-range wireless channels known as dedicated short-range com- munications (DSRC). Peter Ashley, vice president of business development and marketing at Applied Information, Inc., an intel- ligent transportation systems developer in Alpharetta, Georgia, described C-V2X as “a great concept of con- necting all the vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and the infrastructure” to each other. “The idea behind that is if you connect everything to
everything, you’re going to save lives and improve traf- fic,” added Ashley, who spoke at STN EXPO Reno in July. Applied Information partnered with school bus man- ufacturer Blue Bird, German automaker Audi, and Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, to demonstrate the safety benefits of connected school buses, passenger vehicles and infrastructure. (Navistar has also partnered with Applied Information and Audi on the same technology. Real-world testing is planned for later this year.) “If a bus is stopped around a curve, picking up or
36 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2022
dropping off kids, it emits a signal that says, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ Cars equipped with connected technology alert the driver that there’s a stopped bus ahead so slow down and be aware,” said Andy Moore, director of EV strate- gy and operations at Blue Bird. “This is a really exciting safety technology since school children face the highest risk of injury when getting on or off the bus.” A survey conducted in 39 states by the National
Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services in 2019 recorded 95,000 illegal stop-arm passes in just one day. “Those numbers just blow my mind, but they make a strong case for better communication between the bus and other vehicles,” Moore said. Meanwhile, connected infrastructure in a school zone can flash warning lights and “dynamically change the speed limit” when school is in session. “The whole idea is to slow people down in school
zones … so that if there is an impact with a child, the impact is far less severe. If you’re driving at 40 miles an hour, there’s only a 10 percent chance that a child will survive. If you’re driving at 30 miles an hour, there’s a 50 percent chance. If you’re driving at 20 miles an hour, there’s a 90 percent chance,” Ashley relayed. He said Audi is developing passenger cars equipped to flash an alert on their display panel that a stopped bus is ahead. “If you’ve got your foot on the brake and you’re slowing down, it won’t sound an alarm because you don’t want people to get irritated by it,” Ashley said. “It’s only if you continue and it detects that you’re going to drive through a stop arm that it will sound. We also have created a smartphone application for anyone who doesn’t have a connected vehicle.” He continued, “The idea behind this will also be able
to connect up pedestrians and cyclists. We’re doing a great project in in Northern California, where they want to protect schoolchildren who cycle to school by provid- ing schoolchildren with green lights and everyone else is put to a stop. [Students] go safely through the signal during the school hours. These are all these concepts on connected vehicles that are really starting to make those strides to make the roadway safer for schoolchildren.” Ashley said more than 800 U.S. communities have
deployed the V2I technology that improves traffic flow. “It requires infrastructure to be deployed at the traffic signals and devices on the vehicles itself, but it’s avail- able today. If somebody wanted to deploy that in your city, you’d be looking at just a couple of months to get it done,” he said. Applied Information also has collaborated with com-
munities and districts to install technology that gives buses priority at traffic signals. Initial studies show an
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