Improving the safety of London buses through design

Over 5.04 billion bus passenger journeys were made in Great Britain in one year (2015-2016), and around half of the bus passengers in the UK are passengers of London buses. In 2015, 1,594 bus and coach occupant casualties were reported by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). However, some 6,096 incidents not requiring police intervention were also reported by London’s Bus Operators to Transport for London (TfL) in 2016, suggesting that there is a more of a problem of passenger injury than is suggested by the MPS figures.

In this study, quantitative data was analyzed to derive a better understanding of the nature and circumstances of injuries and how they can be prevented and/or mitigated by design. Additionally, countermeasures were developed in consultation with designers, engineering, human factors and vehicle safety experts. These were then presented to stakeholders to determine priority solutions i.e., those that would have the most impact on preventing bus occupant injuries together with the feasibility of implementing them.

Five years-worth of police collision data were analyzed in total The data identified that bus accidents in the London area resulting in reported bus passenger injuries had increased during a five-year period, rising from a 31% share of the total STATS19 bus accidents in 2012 to 44% in 2016 Department for Transport, 2017). Most passenger injury incidents resulted from noncollision incidents. The data also allowed identification of the passenger position in the bus in one of four categories which can help to identify the bus movement at the time of the incident. The analysis identified that alighting and boarding mainly occurs when the vehicle is “waiting to go”, “parked” or “moving off”. However, injuries sustained while seated, which on average represent 41% of the casualties, most often occurred when the vehicle is “going ahead” or “slowing / stopping”. Standing injuries, which account for half of the total casualties, occurred most frequently when the vehicle was “slowing / stopping”, “going ahead”, or “moving off”.