Background
Have you ever heard about Pedibus?
Pedibus (or Piedibus) is a
form of transport for elementary and lower middle school pupils who are accompanied on foot to school by adults.
With this system, the children at the "Pedibus stop" (instead of the bus stop) join a group led by some adult volunteers who will accompany them to school.
The same happens when you leave school when you return home.
The Pedibus is organized like a real bus (with lines, stops, timetables, driver, controller and regulations) "transporting" the children from the stop closests to home to school in a safe, ecological and healthy way.
Challenge
Until now, this service was administered through the use of paper registers,
with which the volunteers made the appeal, and the parents had no
information on the actual arrival of the child at their destination.
Solution
To overcome these problems, Pedibus has become Smart.
Thanks to an app created by the Bruno Kessler Foundation of Trento, the daily management of the Pedibus has been
simplified, and the system has been made more secure.
The app allows automatic recording of the daily attendance of children,
leaving more time for volunteers for personal interactions with children. Each child who participates in the Pedibus receives a
Keyfob Tag to put in the backpack. The proximity of
this device to the smartphone of the adults who accompany the children triggers the registration of the child "on board" the Pedibus, automatically filling
in the daily attendance register, which is then confirmed by the drivers and shared securely with the back-end servers.
There is no tracking of position of children as the device is a proximity sensor only.
In addition, through the App, volunteers can easily access the telephone numbers of their parents to call them in case of need,
and can send data on attendance to the Pedibus Secretariat to monitor the kilometers traveled and the operation of the Lines.
Results
This solution simplifies the daily routine of the Pedibus, helping carers and making the trip to school safe and fun for everyone. The configuration is easy and it is simple to access information and statistics via the app.
The use of tags makes the traditional Pedibus more manageable and safer.
