Bus Driver Training Simulator Assessment

Wright, Virginia; Forman, Robert · 1980 · ROSA P / United States. Urban Mass Transportation Administration

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Summary

This 1980 report by Virginia Wright and Robert Forman assesses the feasibility of using driving simulators for bus driver training, commissioned by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA). The study was motivated by transit managers' interest in automated training devices to teach safe driving and operating techniques. The research aimed to determine if simulators could offer cost benefits, safety improvements, or fuel reductions compared to traditional on-road training methods. The methodology involved a comprehensive survey of existing transit training programs and needs, guided by an Advisory Committee representing small, medium, and large transit properties and the American Transit Union. Data was also gathered from the AFL-CIO Appalachian Council Research Department and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The authors identified specific simulator requirements, such as a 180-degree field of view, motion cues, and the ability to simulate other vehicles for defensive driving training. They then evaluated existing hardware, including systems from Atkins-Merrill, Inc. and Doron Precision Systems, Inc., as well as research-grade simulators, analyzing their technical capabilities, costs, and applicability to bus training. The findings revealed that no transit properties currently used simulators for bus operator training. Advanced simulators capable of reproducing the complex, interactive environment of city driving were prohibitively expensive, with costs ranging from $200,000 to over $300,000 per unit. Existing systems often lacked the necessary realism or interactivity, such as the ability to simulate moving traffic. Furthermore, literature reviews indicated that simulator training did not significantly reduce accident rates or training time compared to traditional methods. Consequently, the study concluded that the high capital and operational costs of required simulator features would not be offset by any demonstrable savings in training time or safety benefits. The significance of this report lies in its determination that driving simulators were not a cost-effective solution for bus driver training at the time. The authors recommended that transit properties, particularly those training large numbers of drivers, consider lower-cost multi-media teaching machines instead. These systems, costing a fraction of simulators, could effectively teach hazard identification and decision-making without the need for full environmental simulation. The report highlights the technical and economic barriers to adopting simulation technology in commercial driving training, emphasizing that the complexity of urban driving environments made high-fidelity simulation difficult and expensive to achieve.

Key finding

No cost benefit or safety benefit could be documented to justify the use of a driving simulator for bus operator training due to high implementation costs and lack of proven training time savings.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• simulator training transfer
• simulator validity fidelity
• simulator sickness

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Methodological Resource: tool software, validation psychometrics
• Theoretical Contribution: computational model