Evaluating the Performance of Video-Based Automated Passenger Counting Systems in Real-World Conditions: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Automatic passenger counting (APC) systems in public transport are useful in collecting information that can help improve the efficiency of transport networks. Focusing on video-based passenger counting, the aim of this study was to evaluate and compare an existing APC system, claimed by its manufacturer to be highly accurate (98%), with a newly developed low-cost APC system operating under the same real-world conditions. For this comparison, a low-cost APC system using a Raspberry Pi with a camera and a YOLOv5 object detection algorithm was developed, and an in-field experiment was performed in collaboration with the public transport companies operating in the cities of Turin and Asti in Italy. The experiment shows that the low-cost system was able to achieve an accuracy of 72.27% and 74.59%, respectively, for boarding and alighting, while the tested commercial APC system had an accuracy, respectively, of 53.11% and 55.29%. These findings suggest that current APC systems might not meet expectations under real-world conditions, while low-cost systems could potentially perform at the same level of accuracy or even better than very expensive commercial systems.

Benchmarking the Functional, Technical, and Business Characteristics of Automated Passenger Counting Products

“…Therefore, there is likely to be a high correlation between the two KPIs if the accuracy of the compared APC systems is similar. Although many companies report similar high accuracy values, ideal scenarios often diverge from the actual accuracy in the field [33]. This discrepancy, influenced by product-specific factors and different city contexts, can lead to significant differences between KPI 2 and KPI 1 .…”