Study of subjective responses on ride comfort in public transport Uttarakhand State buses

Abstract

Today, ride comfort has developed facets that are as significant as safety and speed in assessing the physical characteristics of transportation. The road roughness and vehicle vibration play a predominant role in the subjective evaluation of the ride comfort and activity comfort. The quality of life on board road vehicles is influenced by the level of ride comfort which is basically related to vibration levels and the perception of fatigue. The present study encompasses a questionnaire based study conducted on public transport buses in India, in different routes between Roorkee to Hardwar, Hardwar to Roorkee, and Saharanpur to Roorkee together with vibration measurements on the seat and floor with vertical (z) and lateral (y) directions. The subjective study involved reading of a national Hindi newspaper, to obtain a subjective opinion and to quantify the difficulty in reading and also from the vibration measurements the seat accelerations were measured for suggesting the proper design of seats in public transportation buses. The Preference technique method was adopted and the level of discomfort analyzed in 7-point Semantic scale. The conclusions from the seat location, postures adapted for reading and the vibration measurements served as useful guidelines for conducting experimental work in the Laboratory.