Public transportation is primarily used by the vast majority of people in low- and middle-income countries for daily activities. Public buses, for instance, are the primary mode of transportation in Kigali (Rwanda), as they are more cost-effective than alternative options including private cars, motorbikes, and cabs. These buses frequently have more than 60 passengers on board, which increases weariness and increases the risk of contagious diseases like tuberculosis and other respiratory illnesses spreading.

Without a monitoring system in place to identify the air pollution that is responsible for these communicable diseases, these diseases cannot be known and prevented. In order to monitor the quality of the air in public transportation, the Internet of Things is applied. Environmental sensors and inexpensive microcontrollers are used to gather data, which is then sent to an open-source Internet of Things cloud platform for analysis, storage, and visualizations.

The experimental methodology utilized in this study uses a prototype to gather data and secondary data from earlier studies and reports on air quality to guide decision-making. The system uses a variety of sensors to detect several aspects of air quality, including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Data is transmitted to the Web server through Wi-Fi for storage, processing, and data visualization for decision-makers. Utilizing additional tools like Microsoft Excel and Grafana, the data was further examined. A customized dashboard displaying real-time values of variables gathered using a prototype produced in a graph is the expected outcome of the project.