Customer perceptions and behavioural responses to IT-based public transport information: literature review and what the experts say

A considerable amount of money is spent on IT-based applications such as real-time, at-stop displays on public transport, but actual knowledge about the behavioural effects these have on customers or potential customers in real life is quite sparse. This paper presents a review of relevant literature, focussing specially on user response to public transport information via telephone, mobile devices, the Internet and at-stop displays. This paper also presents the findings of a questionnaire returned by a number of specially selected experts on how information delivered via IT applications influences the behaviour of people in reality. The experts commented on the "efficiency" of a journey, whether or not the IT systems matched customer needs, customer perceptions of reliability and trust in the system, and changes in the numbers of travellers. Both the literature review and the opinions of the experts show that more evaluation studies need to be done that include customer perspectives. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is twofold - the effect of public transport information delivered via IT-based applications on modal split should not be overestimated, nor should its potential effect be underestimated. (A). http://www3.banverket.se/raildokuffe/pdf/MN2158.pdf