Pre-trip information covers all travel related information that travellers need - in advance of making their journey. Travellers need to understand:
Good quality pre-trip information enables travellers to make informed decisions about their journey, so they can optimise their route and minimise their costs, travel time or environmental impact.
In certain situations, pre-trip information has been used as a network management tool. A good example is the London 2012 Olympics where the online journey planner incorporated predetermined capacity limits on certain routes.
The proliferation of the internet and the mobile internet has transformed the provision of pre-trip traveller information. Less than 20 years ago the main sources of pre-trip information were road and street atlases and printed railway and bus timetables - supplemented bytelephone information services. Increasingly these sources of pre-trip information are being replaced by services using the internet, mobile internet and social media.
Provision of pre-trip information via the internet provides benefits to travellers as well as information providers - enabling more timely provision of information and its delivery to the users at home, in the workplace and for travellers on the move - at relatively low cost. The low cost and ubiquitous nature of this information has greatly increased traveller expectations on availability, timeliness and accuracy of information - and this is a critical consideration when designing information systems.
The key platforms for providing pre-trip information ITS services include:
The mainstakeholders in providing pre-trip information are:
The nature of pre-trip information provision is affected by the institutional framework within which they are deployed. In some cases a city authority may be responsible for fulfilling all the roles itemised above - for example, in London, the public transport operator, road network manager, and public transport network manager roles are provided by Transport for London. This organisational framework makes it is easier to mandate the public transport operator to provide known service disruption information.
Pre-trip information can be a vital tool for the road network and/or public transport operators. In the case of a major disruption to the network, it benefits everybody to have information disseminated on the state of the network - and the otpions open to users. If a public transport operator cancels services, informing the travellers about how they can complete their journey helps to reduce stress, complaints and compensation demands. For a road network operator, pre-trip information can reduce network congestion in a region around closed network links. For example, by providing advanced warning to travellers about road closures due to snow, travellers can choose to change their route or their mode of transport - so minimising congestion on alternative routes and in the vicinity of the closure.
Pre-trip information needs to be tailored to the needs of users and the delivery channels they tend to use. A 'one size fits all' approach is often inappropriate - so care must be taken to ensure that consistent, but targeted messagesa is provided to each audience type.
Provision of fares and journey information for public transport journeys is a particular challenge in de-regulated environments - where public transport operators are not mandated to provide details of schedules & pricing policies to network managers or regulators. This can limit the level and quality of information that can be provided - to avoid this it is important to ensure early engagement with public transport operators.
The internet provides an excellent opportunity to present information and to allow users to interact with it. Many transport authorities and operators have taken advantage of this to connect with current and potential travellers and help inform their decision making on transport journey options. The growth of internet-based journey planners has sometimes been at the expense of other forms of communication.
The key benefits of internet journey planners include the ability to present, what may be a complicated transport network, in a simple, user-focused way. When this is well implemented, it can break down barriers to travel, but to do so it is essential that the information presented is accurate and correctly maintained. This is often a significant challenge and should not be underestimated.
Increasingly much of the underlying mapping data, may be provided as an open data source, reducing the cost of maintenance of this part of the service.
Journey planners on the internet can be categorised into two main types: single-mode journey planning and multi-mode journey planning.
Single mode journey planning includea:
Road based journey planners - such the AA Route Planner for the UK and Europe enable a road journey by car to be planned from door-to-door, with a list of printable instructions and directions - and maps. Additional features such as the approximate cost of fuel can be determined for any given route; and many include station to station rail journey planning - for example Deutschebahn in Germany and SBB in Switzerland. Information on fares, ability to transport bicycles, availability of food and disabled access may also be available. Some companies are also trialling applications which let users choose their service - based on current or predicted level of over-crowding (See Real-Time Journey Information). These enable certain the users to select their own preferences - whether it is to enable selection of an emptier train for a journey, or planning a road journey to avoid low bridges. (See Freight and Commercial Vehicle Operations)
Traffic information websites, may not provide a direct journey planning function, but they may provide access to information to support journey planning - such as information on known current congestion, roadworks and road surface condition.
Multi-modal journey planning has been explored by many public transport authorities as a tool for promoting modal shift. There are also a growing number of private providers who use data provided by public authorities to develop value added journey planners.
Most multi-modal journey planners allow journeys to be planned for road transport, walking, cycling, or public transport with walking links integrated to show routes between public transport stops or stations. There are very few journey planners that fully integrate all modes and can provide advice on mixed-mode journeys - such as car routes linked to public transport options.
One of the most ambitious attempts to provide multi-modal journey planning on a large-scale is the European Enhanced WiseTrip project for international journey planning. At city level, there have been, or are, a wide range of choices of journey planners developed and provided by private and public operators - ranging from the (now discontinued) UK national journey planner, Transport Direct, to regional or city-based services such as CityMapper for London and New York). Many provide real-time and en-route services.
Phone-based journey planning pre-dates the Internet. Services can be divided into public transport advice and road condition advice.
Generally, public transport phone journey planning requires the public to ring and speak to an advisor to generate a personalised journey plan. Road condition advice can be obtained from many road authorities via an automated phone system - with the 511 services in the US being the most well known. Automated traffic information phone services often present the same information that is also available on traffic information websites.
Taveline Telephone Services in UK
Road based telephone traffic information services can be easily automated - and in some cases, the user is provided with an automated menu system to search for traffic information on specific roads. Other authorities may provide a general customer care line, which can provide traffic and incident information alongside other services - for example, the Traffic Scotland Traffic Customer Care Line. Once again, internet-based services has tended to reduce the usage and value of these services - for example Highways Englandhas discontinued provision of its Automated Traffic Information Phone Line, providing the information instead via its website, mobile applications and social media feeds.
A whole series of ITS applications are necessary for internet journey planners, traffic information websites and phone services. Jurney planners will collect information from a variety of sources - some static, some dynamic. It is important to ensure that each information element is:
Single-mode road based journey planners require:
Road based journey planners may be able to accommodate live and planned traffic event information and show the impact of this information on journey plans - by displaying them or using them to inform estimated travel times.
There are various international standards associated with traffic information data exchange. Traffic and event data may be available from multiple sources - and it needs to be considered at the outset how this data will be incorporated into the service. Traffic data exchange within Europe is often distributed using the Datex2 standard. (See ITS Standards) The USA has a National Systems Architecture Framework (See ITS Architecture) and associated data exchange standards. To integrate data on traffic delay and events, consistent definitions of event, their consequences and delays need to be applied. Many of these parameters are defined in Datex2 and other standards. There are numerous technologies used to collect road traffic data and information - which are used as enabliung technologies to inform the development of journey planner applications (See Enabling Technologies). Network and event data should always be geo-referenced using appropriate international geographic definitions - generally, WGS84 or Latitude/Longitude metrics.
Multi-modal journey planners require - generally, in addition to the functions for single mode road journey planners:
Public transport schedule information needs to be sourced from the public transport operators, and may be added manually or be electronically imported into the journey planning software. In Europe, Transmodel is the European Standard reference data model for public transport. Data exchange standards generally exist for public transport schedule information transmission - such as VDV-452 in Germany and TranXchange in the UK. The public transport access node definitions are also often standardised - for example IFOPT, NETEX. (See ITS Standards)
Real time data can also be integrated into multi-modal journey planners. In Europe this real-time public transport data exchange is defined in the SIRI- XML standard.
There are key parameters which impact on out-turn journey plans. These need to be given careful consideration (including their impact on the user interface design) - for example, the system may limit the number of changes to a journey, or this may be a user-defined parameter.
It is also critical that, when specifying and designing a journey planner, that the potential data sources to be integrated are considered at the outset - together with the implications of processing the resulting data (especially where real-time information is included).
When developing a journey planner it is worth bearing in mind that, in the future, other journey planners may wish to query your planner. Data exchange standards for journey planning requests exist - including Journeyweb, Delfi and EU Spirit. (See ITS Standards)
The key trends in journey plannner design are the amalgamation of more sources of data and the desire to make these more open and integrated with cycling journey planners and carbon calculators. Many authorities are also publishing data for third parties to integarte in their own applications. There are increasing moves to incorporate real-time information on road traffic and public transport information with planned and unplanned events, into all types of journey planners.
The European Union’s 7th Framework Research project ‘WISETRIP’ has been trialling integrated pan-European public transport journey planning. Other areas of research include more detailed development work on accessible journey planning - Transport for London has commissioned work from the Loughborough University of Technology into this.
In the UK, the NAPTAN data standard defines the public transport stop. For each bus stop, multiple pieces of information must be collected to ensure logical journeys can be presented later on. This should include accessibility information and interchange times - within, and where applicable between, transport modes. Hierarchies of information need to be planned carefully and consideration given to adoption of an architecture - for example, Transmodel, the European Reference Data Model for Public Transport.
Pre-trip and en-route radio travel advice and guidance are particularly hard to disentangle. (See En-Route Information, Radio) The key issues with the distribution of traveller information by radio and television are selecting which information is disseminated- and targeting it at the correct audience.
Television is used to deliver traffic and travel information via:
In the internet age, generally the content for text-based travel information services is identical to that provided for internet traffic information - but its presentation may be different depening on the bandwidth available for information broadcast and transmission/retrieval.
When considering broadcasting TV bulletins, the content is generally constrained by the length of time slot available. Traffic and travel bulletins are often presented before and during key commuter times - and focus on planned and unplanned events with significant impacts. When considering TV bulletins it is important to take into account that traffic and travel items of wider interest, may have longer air times impacting so how these traffic and travel segments are put together.
The key to providing the correct content for bulletins is being able to clearly categorise traffic and travel incidents and effectively scripting the traffic broadcast - to create an interesting and behaviour changing travel news item. Specialist companies exist in most mature markets to assist with traffic news collation and scripting of broadcast items for radio and TV.
Pre-trip traffic and travel information delivered by Radio can be categorised as :
Dedicated traffic internet radio services are radio services which can be played by running an application in an internet browser or on specific internet radio hardware. These radio broadcasts consist of a looped programme of short duration containing significant traffic (planned and unplanned) incident information. A good example is the The UK’s Traffic Scotland service.
Internet radio services includes a codec - to code/decode the radio transmission, which is streamed over the internet. Various audio codecs are employed, although the Internet Media Device Alliancec is trying to standardise these and has published the IMDA Automotive Profile 1 - which specifies requirements for in-car internet radios including the transport layer and codecs to be used.
Traffic Information is also presented in conventional radio programmes - and is most often heard on the approach to, and during, peak commuting times. These broadcasts are contained as a segment, often as an add-on to news broadcasts - in a similar way to weather forecasts - and this applies to both internet radio, DAB and analogue broadcasts. The key requirement is for the travel bulletin to be focussed on the needs of the audience - and, in the same way as TV, needs to be interesting to all listeners (as far as practicable). The most severe incidents with the greatest impact should be the highest priority for broadcast. Traffic incident severity and impact should be determined and associated with the incident in such in a way that enables multiple reuse of the information.
Traffic information can also be distributed as a non-audio data stream (over radio). (See En-route Information)
Internet Radio
It is important to consider that the listener is unlikely to want to listen endlessly to Internet Traffic Radio - so broadcasts should be relatively short and regularly repeated to maximise their value to listeners.
Traffic/Travel Radio Bulletins
The key requirement for bulletins is that they are focussed on the needs of the audience, and - in the same way as TV - they need to be interesting to all listeners (as far as practicable). The most severe incidents with the greatest impact should be the highest priority for broadcast.
A lot of work has been undertaken to standardise the categorisation of events - such as the Alert C standard ISO 14819:2013 (parts 1 and 2) which defines event categorisation for RDS-TMC, and also the Datex 2 information exchange standard which is primarily for Transport Management Centre to Transport Management Centre communications. (See Network Monitoring)
For FM analogue radio - overlays for traffic announcements and definition of programmes containing traffic information are defined by the Radio Data System (RDS) components Extended Other Networks (EON), Traffic Announcements (TA) and Traffic Programmes (TP) for which more information is available on the RDS Forum.
Structuring and prioritising traffic and travel event information is the next issue to address as a key requirement - making consistent data dissemination a much easier prospect.
Travel information kiosks are electronic kiosks in public areas for the presentation of travel information. They may contain:
Kiosks may be funded by the Highway Authority, Public Transport Operator or Commercial Providers. They may be interactive or non-interactive - and located internally or externally. Interactive Kiosks can be touch screen or include a keyboard and tracker ball to enable the user to navigate between pages - and they may also include a printer to provide 'takeaway' information.
Considerations include:
The key issue, when designing and specifying kiosks, is the purpose for which they will be used. This informs specification of requirements. For example - if the kiosk is intended to enable the user to plan an immediate local public transport journey from the location of the kiosk, the default setting should enable the user to select the destination and confirm an immediate travel requirement. For popular destinations, this could, with careful design, require only two screen taps or mouse clicks.
It should be recognised that there is always a trade off between simplicity of use and functionality. Optimising the balance between them is the key to success.
Kiosks form part of the built environment - so their physical form and the design language need to be in tune with their construction and the information they present. For example, kiosks may be an integral part of a city wayfinding system - in which case a consistent design approach is necessary to make the wider wayfinding strategy successful.
Data requirements must be considered when designing a kiosk and its user interface. As with all traveller information, it is essential that the information displayed is correct and timely.
Many interactive kiosks may serve a dual purpose - with, for example, a default screen which provides real-time service information on public transport or road congestion. When a user interacts with the kiosk, they may obscure the screen for some time - so user dwell-time must also be considered during the design phase. If it takes the average user 5 minutes to retrieve the information they require, they will obscure the kiosk display for that length of time. This highlights the importance of understanding the use cases - and optimising the interface design - to maximise the value of the kiosk.