A Web-Based College Bus Tracking Application for Real-Time Transportation and Monitoring

Abstract

Efficient management of college transportation systems is essential to ensure student safety, punctuality, and convenience. Traditional college bus services operate on fixed schedules and lack real-time visibility, leading to uncertainty in bus arrival times and inconvenience for students. This paper proposes a Web-Based College Bus Tracking Application that enables real-time monitoring of college buses without requiring dedicated GPS hardware installation. The system utilizes location data shared through the driver’s mobile device and a centralized web server to provide live bus location updates. A web-based interface allows students, drivers, and administrators to securely access bus routes, current status, and estimated arrival times. The proposed system reduces waiting time, improves transportation transparency, enhances safety, and offers a cost-effective and scalable solution for educational institution

Introduction

The text presents a Web-Based College Bus Tracking Application designed to improve transportation management, student convenience, and administrative monitoring in educational institutions. Traditional college bus systems rely on fixed schedules and manual coordination, leading to delays, missed buses, and lack of transparency due to the absence of real-time tracking.

To address these issues, the proposed system uses web technologies and mobile-based location services to provide real-time bus tracking without requiring additional GPS hardware. Drivers share live location data through their mobile devices, which is processed by a centralized web server and displayed to authorized users—students, drivers, and administrators—via a secure, platform-independent web interface.

The literature survey highlights the evolution from static timetable systems to GPS-based solutions, noting challenges such as high cost, hardware dependency, and limited security. Recent web-based approaches are more scalable and cost-effective but often lack robust authentication and institution-specific design. The proposed system fills these gaps by offering secure, role-based access and features tailored for college transportation.

The system architecture includes modules for driver location updates, data processing, web application interface, authentication and authorization, information display, and output visualization. Students can track buses and view estimated arrival times, drivers can manage trip status, and administrators can oversee routes, buses, and users.

Evaluation results demonstrate reliable real-time updates, minimal delay, accurate route tracking, and stable performance. Overall, the application enhances transparency, reduces waiting time and uncertainty, and improves the efficiency of college transportation management without additional hardware costs.

Conclusion

The Web-Based College Bus Tracking Application successfully improves transportation transparency by providing real-time bus location and route information through a centralized web platform. The system reduces uncertainty for students, simplifies transportation monitoring, and enhances overall operational efficiency without requiring additional hardware installation. Its cost-effective and scalable design makes it suitable for deployment in educational institutions. Future enhancements may include automated location updates, mobile application integration, push notifications for bus arrival alerts, and traffic-aware route optimization. The incorporation of data analytics and predictive arrival estimation can further improve system accuracy and support intelligent transportation management.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Thelukuntla Nishanth, K. Nithin Reddy, S. Laxman, J. Ravi Teja, Dr. Revathi Durgam . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.