Overview
Traveler information can be acquired by travelers today through a number of media. These media range from traditional roadside signage and broadcast media to newer electronic wireless and web‐based media. The resulting mix of traffic and transportation system status data has greatly increased information accessibility, and permitted an ever‐greater degree of traveler‐specific customization.
Organizations providing traveler information continue to broaden beyond traditional public agencies and news organizations to private corporations, data integrators, and social networking applications. Methods for measuring travel conditions have also evolved beyond traditional technologies such as loop detectors and infrared sensors to video imaging, cell phone tracking, Bluetooth monitoring, GPS traces, and traveler‐to‐traveler information sharing. In step, methods for integrating multiple data are becoming more sophisticated and complex, blending multiple sources of data including real‐time and historic data that is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Furthermore, the means for transmission of information are increasing in sophistication beyond dynamic message signs, and web content toward in‐vehicle devices with innovative voice‐based transactions and heads‐up displays (HUD). These concurrent trends in technology and innovation will provide the potential for traveler information granularity, coverage, and accuracy far exceeding what has historically been available, and consequently offers the opportunity for delivering trip reliability information in a variety of forms, both traditional and newly conceived.
Trip reliability information for travelers can be interpreted through two distinct lenses (1) information on historic trip time variability of a specific trip, and (2) the reliability of traveler information (e.g. how reliable is the message “expect delays” or “20 minutes to downtown).” For the first interpretation, one use of reliability information is to aid in determining an appropriate departure time and route based on the traveler’s risk acceptability for late arrivals. For example, a traveler may budget 75 minutes for his trip to the airport because he has been informed that historically the average travel time to the airport during that rainy Friday afternoon that he is travelling is 45 minutes, but the 95th percentile travel time is 70 minutes. For the second interpretation, the traveler while driving to the airport may be informed that the travel time is between 40‐50 minutes and that there is a 10% probability that the trip will take over 50 minutes given current traffic conditions. The aforementioned example is one of many metrics through which trip reliability can be delivered to the traveler. The Literature Review document provides the definitions of trip reliability metrics; outlines the prevalent formats and types of reliability information disseminated mainly through Variable Message Signs, 511 phone, and web sites; describes how reliability information is communicated in other fields such as weather forecasts; and highlights more recent means for transmission of traveler information including personalized e‐mails, texts and tweets. This Scan document focuses on technology and innovation trends likely to impact the provision of traveler information over the next five years.
This scan is organized into three exploratory sections, each ending with a synopsis of findings. Following the three exploratory sections is a section discussing the outlook for traveler information. The first section of this Scan identifies the underlying technology trends that will drive the availability of better reliability data. The second section presents innovative media that have become center stage in the past few years for disseminating traveler information(i.e. portable navigation devices, and applications on PDAs, Smartphones, and mobile phones), media on the cusp of becoming center stage (in‐vehicle agents), and future technologies such as integrated Heads‐Up Display (HUD) of reliability information. Examples of specific applications for these media are highlighted. The use of social media to reach travelers as well as the phenomena of crowdsourcing as it pertains to trip reliability information provision is explored in this section. The third section then identifies the market players in provision of traveler information.
Following the three exploratory sections, the Scan presents the outlook for traveler information, and specifically reliability data. In this section, the Scan aims to address a number of foundational considerations as both technology and innovations enable opportunities for providing travelers information on trip reliability. Two foundational considerations are that of driving safety, and varying needs for driver information.
Driver information overload and distraction is a critical issue gaining significant attention under the Obama administration. Most recently, in September 2009, the USDOT held a Distracted Driving1 Summit whose discussions related to distracted driving legislation will likely have direct implications on the means and content of delivering reliability information. And in January 2010, the US Department of Transportaion enacted prohibitions that ban truck and bus drivers from sending text messages on hand‐ held devices while operating commercial vehicles. This issue is further discussed in the final section of this Scan.
The most basic considerations for trip reliability information relate to the points during a trip that reliability information should be provided, the content of the reliability information to be provided, and how content differs as a trip is made from planning, origin to ultimate destination. Another consideration regards how reliability information needs differ for travelers with familiarity and experience with a recurrent trip compared to a trip made without the benefit of day‐to‐day experience of the trip’s reliability. Likewise, how might transmission media and message content differ based on the needs of different driver types and trip purposes (e.g. older drivers or newer drivers, commercial vehicle operators or carpool organizers)? Furthermore, what innovations can assist in efficiently meeting these varying needs? These considerations are also discussed in the final section of this Scan.
The Scan concludes with positions on likely trends in the landscape of traveler information on trip reliability in light of factors including market player alignment, better underlying technologies, and innovative media for displaying and acquiring information.