Background

Due to he COVID-19 pandemic, extra measures are being taken in the regular disinfection of public spaces, including all forms of public transportation. The supplementation of ultraviolet (UV) disinfection devicesto current cleaning practices used on public transit vehicles, stations, and facilites has the potential to greatly reduce the spread of COVID-19, restore the general public's confidence in using public transportation, and expedite restart and recovery.

The study is done by Rutgers University Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) in response to NJ TRANSIT's (NJT) requrest for assistance in the investigation of the applicability and feasibility of disinfection devices for use on their public transit vehicles and in the future possibly expand to assist with stations and facilities. The vision is such sustems would provide a greater ability to disinfect surfaces as a final step after manual cleaning processes. The ability to kill or disable viruses is of keen importance during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as for the recovery periods that follow to make customers more confident in their use of public transit, particularly vulnerable transit customers such as seniors or customers with disasbilities.