Skip to main content

Real-time bus arrivals delivered via scan code

Quick Response codes, or QR codes, are being introduced on a trial basis at some local bus stops in Shanghai to allow passengers to check the whereabouts of buses and the expected arrival time of the next bus. Passengers can obtain real-time information on buses by scanning the QR code using their smartphones, allowing them to adjust commuting plans. The service was first launched in Shanghai during late 2012. Almost 90 bus routes serving Pudong New Area can be checked using a smartphone application. People
March 6, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Quick Response codes, or QR codes, are being introduced on a trial basis at some local bus stops in Shanghai to allow passengers to check the whereabouts of buses and the expected arrival time of the next bus.

Passengers can obtain real-time information on buses by scanning the QR code using their smartphones, allowing them to adjust commuting plans.

The service was first launched in Shanghai during late 2012. Almost 90 bus routes serving Pudong New Area can be checked using a smartphone application. People in Shanghai can expect to see it being offered citywide in June 2013 following the completion of the test.

Major bus operator Shanghai Bashi Group said information may not be right during the test. In some cases, passengers can't access their routes. But the operator said in June, after the test is over, locals can expect to see the service citywide.

Despite some problems, several bus passengers welcomed the idea.  "Passengers can be prepared while they wait once they check the real-time status," said one. "If it takes too long, maybe we can choose other means of transportation."

Related Content

  • Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    July 23, 2012
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers
  • Data can help us mind the transportation gender gap
    April 18, 2023
    A gendered perspective in public transport is essential if we are to achieve equality, suggest Emma Chapman and Naomi Grant of WhereIsMyTransport 
  • Open communication platform to support cooperative infrastructure
    July 23, 2012
    Within the European Commission's CVIS project, work is going on to shrink the open vehicle communication platform to make it more market-ready and to remove barriers to the creation of appropriate applications by those external to the project. Here, ERTICO's Zeljko Jeftic and Paul Kompfner and Q-Free's Knut Evensen discuss progress. Development of the open communication platform which will support the various applications developed by the European Commission's (EC's) Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Syste
  • UITP highlights mass transit changes
    October 25, 2022
    Increasingly, public transport passengers will no longer need to carry a dedicated smartcard ticket to travel, as technology enables virtually any type of contactless payment system to take over the role.