CONSUMER REACTION TO CALL BOXES ON THE DULLES TOLL ROAD IN VIRGINIA

This study represents the first part of an assessment of consumer reactions to the introduction of call boxes on the Dulles Toll Road (Northern Virginia). It initially looks at the existing experiences with call boxes in the US. Despite their adoption in many states they are largely concentrated in just five and they offer a variety of services but the greatest distinction is between voice and non-voice call boxes. They have a long pedigree and their use in recent years has tended to be constant despite the widening availability and use of cellular telephones. Costs vary between systems dependent on a wide range of factors but efforts to increase the usefulness of call boxes by adopting more sophisticated systems of Smart call boxes (e.g., to provide input into traffic management systems) have met with practical problems. A pre-installation survey of users of the Dulles Toll Road reveals a very high level of cellular telephone availability (over 75%) but despite that a very significant proportion of respondents (over 60%) felt that if needing assistance there was at least a possibility that sometimes they would use call boxes. This is despite the fact that the reported use of call boxes in previous situations where assistance was sought on other routes was small compared to that of the cellular telephone or waiting for police or other assistance to arrive. More broadly, there was general support for the program when respondents were asked for additional comments on the scheme