Information for travelling: Awareness and usage of the various sources of information available to public transport users in NSW

Abstract

Public transport authorities and service providers place great emphasis on information provision to travellers both before and during travel. Information provided prior to travel has included brochures, printed timetables, newspaper advertisements, telephone services and marketing campaigns. During the trip, providers have tended to use maps at public transport stops (i.e. bus stops, train stations, ferry wharves, etc.) as well as timetables both static and dynamic or real-time. Some of these channels are still used but improvements in digital technology has led to a wider range of information distributed using different digital media. Whilst Transport for NSW continues to provide the more traditional information, as do the transport operators, there has been a plethora of third party applications which are accessible on the move. The literature recognises the importance of information provision and the need for information differs at the various stages of the trip, from planning, to point of entry into the system to wayfinding during the trip to egress from the system, but no systematic research exists as to which information is valued by which customers. Different passenger segments are likely to prefer information in different ways and it is important to identify the segments and their information preferences so as to promote public transport use. This paper provides a context for passenger information provision through existing literature which is used to frame an internet survey of the public's awareness and usage of public transport information. The paper explores the differences between casual and regular users of public transport as well as the usage and importance placed on the various sources of information currently available, including any differences relating to regular schedules, changes to regular services, planned and unplanned disruptions. The paper provides a reference for other states in Australia as to the value of different types of information.

Understanding factors influencing public transport passengers’ pre-travel information-seeking behaviour

“…no smartphone) 905 greater for respondents who reported < 1 trip per week as opposed to those who reported 5 + trips per week. This is consistent with other studies that have shown that differences exist between passengers making frequent versus infrequent trips (Mulley et al 2017). Among all the socio-demographic variables considered, the employment status variable had a significant effect on pre-travel information-seeking behaviour.…”

“…The model results suggest that trip context (specifically, all journey planning stages except for plan at station/stop/on-board) and preferred mode have a significant effect on pre-travel information-seeking behaviour. This finding provides further support to Mulley et al (2017), who suggested that public transport users do identify a variety of information needs at different stages of their journey. The odds of searching for pre-travel public transport information are 0.553 times less for respondents with a smartphone who typically plan their journeys at locations other than at home/work/station/stop/on-board (for example, while travelling to their next mode of transport or undertaking other activities) as opposed to those with a smartphone who typically plan their journeys at home/work.…”

“…They examined long distance business/leisure journeys while comparing cars with public transport for unfamiliar trips and found that travel behaviour and socio-demographics were significant predictors. Unlike descriptive studies (Mulley et al 2017;Cain 2007), the use of multivariate explanatory models provide a better (although not absolute) explanation of pretravel information-seeking behaviours by combining different variables.…”

Bike Sharing and the Economy, the Environment, and Health-Related Externalities

“…Some policies, such as those of land use and transport planning [18,19], incentives to public transport, and information campaigns [20], can be combined with corrective instruments. In addition, regulations or new technology could play a role [5].…”

Effects from usage of pre-trip information and passenger scheduling strategies on waiting times in public transport: an empirical survey based on a dedicated smartphone application

“…1 In the literature, these electronic passenger information systems containing real-time (travel) information-RT(T)I-are sometimes termed advanced public transport (or transit) traveller information systems-A(P) TTIS (Nuzzolo et al 2015). They can be based on site-specific equipment (signs and displays on vehicles and at stops and stations) or on personal devices such as smartphones and personal computers (Fonzone 2015;Ghahramani and Brakewood 2016;Harmony and Gayah 2017;Mulley et al 2017). The information content on stationary or vehicle-based displays usually comprises scheduled and actual departure times, while journey planners and the like, available through personal devices, also to an increasing degree include itineraries with updated departure and arrival times of connecting services at transfer points (for example, as described by Cats et al 2016).…”