Can a transit route be considered outside of its environmental context? Questions raised by an optical guidance system installed on buses

The desire to enhance the attractiveness of public transit services constitutes a factor of development as well as innovation in this field. Such a motivation is typically aimed at improving the performance of systems while holding costs under control. Against this backdrop, we have analyzed a docking assistance device installed on conventional articulated buses and placed into operation in two of France's metropolitan areas. This analysis has targeted the impact of such a system on the bus driving activity, in order to evaluate the extent to which the device actually provides assistance versus the constraints i t is capable of introducing for the driver, along with the potential ensuing risks. Results reveal that both the system set-up conditions and environmental characteristics (in particular movements of the roadway's other vehicles and bus passengers) serve to determine the system's capacity to function as a real assistance tool or, on the other hand, to create an obstacle to implementing effective and safe driving techniques.