# Light It Up: Boarding for Automated Low-Capacity Shuttles through Ambient Visual Cues
## 6 Discussion
### Urban vs. Rural Public Transport Systems  
The capacity management support needed may be different in certain areas because the frequency is not the same. A process of seat management must be designed to avoid overcrowding on these small shuttles, but also to ensure that passengers can be sure of obtaining a seat at their desired time. If there are no free places in the bus are available, the bus cannot be used and capacity management will fail. This problem especially occurs in rural areas. In urban areas this is not quite a big issue because of the higher density of public transport; it allows quickly to find an alternative transport. In rural areas, there are mostly only a few buses (each 1-2 h) available and there are no substitutes because of the low frequency. In areas where last-mile transportation is required, buses are mostly only driving three to five times a day. The problem is, then, if it is, for some people, not possible to obtain a seat or place in one of the public transports, they have problems to reach their destination, if there is no guarantee to get a space. If people are not able to use buses to reach destinations, those kinds of shuttles make no sense because the usability is significantly limited. While often considered to be equally a challenge for urban and rural contexts [9,43,44], the participants in this study expressed last-mile transportation to be a greater problem in rural areas were traditional means of transport are either too big to use or not needed because of their capacity. Traditional buses in these areas are usually used by a few to no people. The frequency of operation there is generally quite low, as mentioned before. People drive to work and return home afterwards, which mostly only happens two times a day (mornings and evenings). The rest of the day (outside of rush hours), these buses are used by a small number of passengers. Many of the big buses drive their routes almost empty regarding capacity in these areas. This is not environmentally friendly and not essential as there are other means of transport available that can solve that issue. So, while the deployment of such shuttles may be more challenging in rural areas [8], our qualitative data did show that participants viewed these shuttles as a fairly good solution for last-mile transportation in rural areas. Size of Buses and ShuttlesWhile the problem of overcrowding and lack of space is eliminated on larger buses, it still remains on these smaller buses. Regardless of size, it is important for passengers to get a seat when they need one. Bus timing differences have a more pronounced impact in rural areas, because finding alternatives is harder compared to urban areas, and not having space on the bus makes it impossible to reach the destination. If all automated transport had the same capacity as existing regular buses, the already known systems could be reused. However, as long as small shuttles and similar options exist, capacity management tools are required. [PERSON] et al. (2010) mentioned that this would be a non-trivial challenge in such small shuttles to ensure sufficient space for passengers who would need to use such buses. Unlike large buses, smaller shuttle buses must have a guarantee of getting a seat, especially during rush hours, but also at other times of the day. If automated low-capacity transports persist, then this will be important not only in the transition phase, but will then be an important additional solution in the countryside as well as (physically-constrained) urban environments. Another aspect to be considered is that people in rural or peripheral areas do not have the ability to switch between different modes of transportation if they need to get somewhere at a certain time. This could lead to many problems and transportation related anxiety among passengers.