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Top1. Introduction
The uses of information communication technologies in transit operations in recent years have increased as these technologies have improved and become widely available. The explosion in the Smartphone market in recent years has opened up a large market for using these devices in transport operations. Sales figures have shown that one in three phones sold in Ireland is a Smartphone (Business and Leadership, 2010) and in the United States in the first quarter of 2009 Smartphones accounted for 28% of all handsets sold (Dano, 2009). Websites are nowadays commonly used to provide information services allowing travelers immediate and convenient access to a variety of transportation information ranging from route information, to timetables, to real-time information on arrival and departure times. Smartphones refer to the new generation of mobile phones, such as the Apple iPhone or the Nexus Google phone, that provide Internet access and advanced computing facilities. Smartphones extend the immediacy of websites with mobility and pervasiveness that results in “anytime and anywhere” access (Weiser, 1993) to such transportation information services. This allows travelers to plan their travels based on up-to-date information and most importantly, enables them to use real-time information to adjust their journeys while travelling, for instance, to cater for late arrivals or departures.
This paper examines the use of these technologies in providing transportation information services based on website and Smartphone data derived from a private bus operator in the wider Dublin area in Ireland. Many studies have looked at the benefits of providing real-time transit information and demonstrated the benefits of introducing these information services (Barbeau, Georggi, & Winters, 2010; Jariyasunant, Work, Kerkez, Sengupta, Glaser, & Bayen, 2010; Chamberlin, Choi, Hathaway, & Chesnut, 2010; Vasudevan, Wunderlich, Burnier, & Glassco, 2008). This study seeks to examine the demand for each of these technologies and the potential benefits that providing real-time transit information using websites and Smartphone applications has for transport operators and ultimately, technology users. With a particular focus on the behavioral patterns of when, from where and how often passengers would use such real-time transit information services, this investigation analyzes and contracts usage pattern with the aim to support service providers towards improving and tailoring their services according to the needs of the service users. The results of the passenger survey and the benefit analysis presented demonstrate that demand for both the website and the Smartphone application were significant and that the behavioral patterns of travelers using transit information differs depending on the information source. While patterns of website users reflect continues demand throughout the week, the patterns of Smartphone application users reveal peak demand during late afternoons and starting on Mondays, demand increasing throughout the week peaking on Fridays. The passenger survey demonstrates that between 56 and 66 percent of survey questions posed on a Smartphone were answered compared to a response rate of between 21 and 31 percent for email and mail based surveys (Kaplowitz, Hadlock, & Levine, 2004).