A Comfort Field Study in Public Transportation Buses 1999-01-0894
In this paper the first results of a project, initiated in the University of Coimbra and dealing with the conjugated influence of multiple stressors in riding passengers, are presented. A field study was conducted in public transportation buses, in which the subjective response of the occupants was collected and the physical parameters related to thermal comfort, air quality, vibration and noise were acquired.
More than 250 responses to a subjective inquire were collected. Besides questioning the occupants about how they felt the different stressors, the questionnaires also have a final question related to how they felt the global comfort of the vehicle, in a five-point scale.
Even if it looks too far, the final goal of this project is to obtain an general comfort index that takes into account the influence of multiple stressors, thus giving to vehicle manufacturers a tool to evaluate the performance of their models and to improve the vehicle friendliness to passengers.
