Israel’s Optibus Teams with GreenRoad for Safer Public Transportation

Optibus team company pic

Optibus, an Israeli firm that offers a software platform for public transportation planning, scheduling, and rostering, is partnering with GreenRoad Technologies, a safety telematics company, to increase passenger safety and comfort. Optibus and GreenRoad say that they will do so by bringing historical road safety data into the earliest phases of transportation planning.

The two companies say that they will help transportation operators reduce risks by ccounting for safety factors, such as road and ride quality, collisions, injuries, and driver behavior including speeding, sudden acceleration and braking, and sharp turns, at the network planning stage.
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A cloud-native SaaS company founded in 2014, Optibus handles transit operations in over 500 cities around the world. Optibus does so with an AI platform advanced optimization algorithms and distributed cloud computing to make public transportation “smarter, better and more efficient – and ultimately nourish freedom of movement and sustainable cities.”

Israel Startup Nation continues to be at the forefront of new transportation technologies. Everyone knows about Mobileye, which offers tech that makes driving safer by using warning systems that utilize video cameras placed around a vehicle. Last month Mobileye launched a new self-driving taxi in Germany.

Then there are all of the firms developing electric and green tech for the transportation industry. And recently the Bank of Israel called on the country to increase its efforts to reduce the carbon emissions that come from all forms of transportation.

Just yesterday, the Israeli government set new targets for transforming the country from the use of polluting vehicles to ones that run on clean energy. Starting in 2035 at least 50% of new vehicles that weigh more than 3.5 tons will be clean vehicles or vehicles that use fuels. This, it is expected, will lead to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In accordance with a pilot promoted by the Ministries of Transport, Energy and the Environment, regarding non-urban buses, targets will be set for 2030 for the transition to importing clean buses.

Making public transportation safer will encourage more people to use it instead of their own private vehicles. This is just one way in which the development of new transportation safety tech goes hand in hand with green tech.
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Proud to share that #Optibus just won the #AtlasAward for Best Israeli Start-up in the Transportation, Aviation, and Space category! ????

Huge thanks to the Ayn Rand Center Israel & @TheMarker for choosing us from over 200 start-ups.

Join our journey: https://t.co/INlUSOLOhX pic.twitter.com/pFVuDFxy6r

— Optibus (@OptibusHQ) October 18, 2021

And now, the Optibus platform offers use of GreenRoad’s Safety Heat Map to visualize and assess the safety score of existing routes within their network. The company says that this allows planners to re-plan low-scoring routes to avoid hazard areas and increase safety, assess the impact of rerouting on the entire network, and support local authorities in identifying and fixing road hazards. “By optimizing route safety,” says Optibus, “the partnership will reduce the number of injuries per million miles and produce a smoother ride that feels safer to riders, while increasing passenger satisfaction and trust.

“Although public transit is one of the safest ways to travel, thousands of passengers, as well as drivers, pedestrians, and occupants of other vehicles, are still injured or killed each year in bus-related crashes. Many of these incidents could be prevented if safety data was used to plan networks that are safer,” said Optibus CEO and co-founder Amos Haggiag. “Partnering with GreenRoad allows us to do just that, by creating the first-ever integrated planning and safety system for public transport providers.”