Incorporating Systems Engineering Methodologies to Increase the Transferability of Journey Planners

Abstract

One characteristic that is highly desired in transportation-related applications, and particularly journey planners, is transferability -i.e., the capacity to be used with minimal modification in different locations. To achieve transferability, the initial design must take into account all factors that may diverge between locations, including existing modes of transport, the availability of required data, the technological habits of users, etc. In consequence, a highly transferable system is difficult and expensive to develop and maintain. A very flexible initial design, one ensuring low-cost adaptability of the system for different cities, regions, or countries, might not be cost-effective. On the other hand, a rigid design, tailored for a specific location, might act as a barrier to implementing the system elsewhere. This dilemma has motivated researchers to seek a structured process for selecting the most promising design, one that will realize the benefits of transferability while minimizing development costs. One of the fundamental building blocks of structured design in SE is requirements-design exploration. This paper evaluates the use of Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration (MATE), a leading design exploration process, for the effective design of journey planners. We examine the process of changeability assessment (e.g., transferability) in light of the goals of journey planning from the point of view of different stakeholders: travelers, private developers, and transport authorities. The analysis demonstrates how tradespace exploration can also be used to identify specific designs that bridge the gap between the public and private sectors and provide value over time to all parties. Moreover, when specific concerns of public authorities are not met, tradespace exploration can reveal measures the public sector can take (financial or others) for making their preferred design attractive to the private sector as well.

Study of travellers’ preferences towards travel offer categories and incentives in the journey planning context

“…It could combine a wide range of transport modes (public, private), be capable to react to real-time events that impact the transport network and be able to re-plan travellers' trips automatically [13,14]. Furthermore, it could be considered as a key to the future of seamless door-to-door travel experience by nudging traveller behaviour towards active modes through incentives and travel information [15,16]. In order to ensure that journey planners will reach the desired impact on society, they should facilitate the traveller's decision-making or even guide travellers to more sustainable travel solutions.…”