Abstract
Nowadays there is no European regulation regarding the safe transportation of children’s trolleys (CT) in public transport vehicles, with some exceptions based on recommendations and codes of good practices, limited to local transport operators and regional administrations. Similarly, applied research has not been conducted to evaluate the level of stress to which a CT in a bus would be subjected to, at normal and critical driving operating situations.
This paper will show part of the results obtained in a research project conducted by the Institute of Design and Manufacturing (IDF) of the Technical University of Valencia (UPV) jointly with the Institute for Automobile Research (INSIA) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), in collaboration with the local transportation agencies of Valencia and Madrid, and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIN), and whose ultimate objective is to establish the technical requirements for assuring the accessibility and safety in the use of CT in public transportation vehicles. This paper will be focused in the analysis of the forces transmitted to the CT during normal and critical operation of public transportation vehicles.
The methodology applied consisted on the development of a series of practical tests with real public transportation vehicles in which were used different CT existing in the market. Different dummies were used to represent children from 6 months to 3 years old, jointly with electronic instrumentation for measuring displacement, velocity and acceleration of the CT and the vehicle, and digital cameras to capture motion. To simulate the behavior of the bus in driving critical maneuvers of urban traffic, were developed three types of tests on a closed circuit and one more in an open track. Closed-circuit testing consisted of slalom among cones to simulate sudden lane changes, a hard-braking test to simulate a critical braking and a test with circular path at maximum speed to simulate the passage through a roundabout. The open circuit test consisted of a course through the streets of Valencia in which congested traffic conditions, roundabouts circulations, gradient changes, etc. were reproduced.
From the analysis of the trials results it was possible to identify CT transportation situations where it is necessary to use a restraint system and the most suitable locations and orientation inside the bus where the CT are at the highest level of safety.
Keywords: children trolleys, accessibility, safety, public transportation, transportation vehicles.