Advanced Traveler Information Systems ATIS

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Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS)
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ATIS

• Intended to
• Manage travel demand
• Reduce traveler frustration/anxiety
• Increases perceived level of service
• Increases serenity factor reduces Road Rage
• Improve traveler decision making
• Results in more efficient travel
• Creates awareness of alternatives

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ATIS

• All of these aspects have positive benefits in
  the areas of
• Improved safety
• Energy savings
• Time savings
• Good public acceptance

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Manage Travel Demand

• Reduce (peak) demand
• Reallocating demand to alternative routes
• Reallocating demand to alternative modes
• Reallocating demand to alternative time of day
• Eliminating discretionary trips during times of
  bad congestion or high delay

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Reduce Frustration

• Knowing the size / length / duration of backups
  reduces travel stress
• Allows action to be taken, or
• Confirms that no action can/needs to be taken

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Reduce Frustration

• Frustration causes bad decision making
• Reckless driving behavior
• Short tempers
• Irrational behavior

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Improve Traveler Decision Making

• With good information, travelers can
• Make timely decisions
• Choose correctly (for themselves and their trip)
  on
• Routing
• Time of departure
• Mode
• To not make the trip or to alter their trip
  destination

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Improve Traveler Decision Making

• Can select less congested time / route /
  destination
• IF that alternative is less distasteful than the
  original trip
• Provides a sense of self control to traveler

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Improve Traveler Decision Making

• The decisions actually made are not necessarily
  the ones that facility operators want
• Cut through traffic
• Congestion forms on other routes
• System optimization versus user optimization
• Many travelers are reluctant to change

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Summary of traffic findings

• Context may matter most for traffic ATIS
• Higher congestion, longer congestion delay,
  limited alternatives
• Next in line is ATIS service quality
• Few will use low quality information, other than
  the radio, regardless of context
• In high congestion regions, users consult traffic
  information strategically in low congestion
  regions, they use it tactically.

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Summary (continued)

• Weather is a traffic incident that stimulates
  ATIS use in all contexts
• Drivers with greater time and route flexibility
  use ATIS more frequently
• Different people prefer different access media
• ATIS customers feel they save time and reduce
  stress

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Extreme weather conditions influence ATIS demand
San Antonio web site
Heavy Rainand Floods
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Summary of transit findings

• ATIS transit customers want information that
• reduces the uncertainty associated with transit
  trips
• increases their control over time and travel
  decisions
• Transit information should be
• conveniently located relative to trip decisions
• easy to access and use
• up-to-date
• more user friendly and multidimensional on the
  web
• The greatest benefit of transit ATIS may be for
  those who would otherwise switch to SOV, thus
  aiding in rider retention

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Examples

• LA Olympics
• Seattle, I-5 reconstruction, 1985
• 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle
• I-90 Snoqualmie pass

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Timing of Information Delivery

• Pre-trip
• En-route

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Pre-Trip

• Can effect
• Mode
• Time of departure
• Route
• Destination
• Decision to make the trip at all

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En-route

• Potential effect is based on when you provide the
  desired information
• Change route
• Change mode (if PR is viable alternative)
• Give up trip / change destination
• Change driving behavior (slow down)

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Pre-trip En-route

• Information differs depending on what you want /
  expect to be done with that information
• General information (congestion/accident ahead)
• Routing (use alternative routes / modes usually
  needs to include specific directions)

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Dissemination Media

• Media matched to message type, length and timing
• TV (full time versus conventional news cast)
• Radio
• Variable/changeable message sign (VMS / CMS)
• Highway Advisory Radio (HAR)
• Web
• Specialty devices (route guidance devices)

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Dissemination Media

• Other media
• E-mail
• Mail
• Telephone (hotline cell phone / conventional
  phone)
• Kiosks (web based?)

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Attributes of Dissemination Technologies

• Availability to the public
• Timeliness
• Geographic coverage of message
• Length of message
• Cost to produce message

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Attributes of Dissemination Media

• Cost to operate / maintain the delivery device
• User cost
• Producer cost
• Who controls the device? (public / private)

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Traffic TV

• Easy access to traffic hotspots on UW2.TV
• Channel 76 on digital cable

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Technologies

• TV
• Ubiquitous
• Low cost to public (user)
• Higher cost to disseminator
• Short duration message
• Misses details, some geographic areas
• Only for pre-trip information
• Generally not available on demand

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Technologies

• Radio
• Ubiquitous
• Low cost to public (user)
• Short duration message
• Misses details, some geographic areas
• Pre-trip or en-route information
• Generally not available on demand
• Timeliness/accuracy of reports often questioned

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VMS/CMS
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Technologies

• VMS / CMS / DMS
• Good for en-route information
• Only at locations where they can be seen
  (geographically constrained)
• Short duration message
• Messages need to be current or will be ignored
• Location is important
• Prior to decision point

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HAR
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Technologies

• Highway Advisory Radio (HAR)
• Limited power/range makes this a en-route
  technology
• Longer message about a specific geographic area
• Can you keep the message up to date?
• Questions about how many people will turn their
  radios to the proper channel

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Information Via the Web
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Google-Map Based Traffic Information Systems
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Web Sites

• Pre-trip information (becoming en-route with
  wireless web)
• Ability to provide very detailed, very specific
  information (if that information is available)
• Wide geographic area coverage is possible
• Allows interaction with the customer
• Not everyone has an internet connection (social
  equity?)
• How accessible is it at home?

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Private Sector

• Potential market for traveler information is huge
• Value to other private sector businesses likely
  to significantly exceed its value to the public
  sector
• 300 M people in US 5 customers 5/month
  900 M per year
• Few have made a successful business of it yet

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Radio Traffic Services

• Metro Networks, Shadow Traffic, Smart Route
  Systems (Wedgewood One)
• Exchange air time for traffic reports
• Sell airtime to advertisers

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Traffic.com

• Owned by NavTeq
• The Weather Channel
• Motorola's VIAMOTO Solutions
• XM Satellite Radio
• XM NavTraffic
• Radio and TV stations
• AOL

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XM NavTraffic (available on Acura/Cadillac)
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INRIX
INRIX is the leading provider of real-time,
historical and PREDICTIVE traffic information
offering the broadest coverage, exceptional
accuracy and innovative technologies to ensure
the success of our customer's navigation and
traffic-enabled solutions.
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Inrix

• Real-Time Flow Coverage Highlights
• U.S. Metropolitan Areas 122
• U.S. Road Miles Over 51,000
• Real-Time Alert Miles 103,000
• European Coverage Over 12,000 kilometers
  throughout the U.K. and the Netherlands.
• Historical Average Speeds Highlights
• U.S. Road Miles Over 800,000
• Incident Coverage Highlights
• U.S. and Canadian Metropolitan Areas 113 markets
  
• Europe 16 Countries

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DASH

• Uses both cellular radio and Wi-Fi networks to
  automatically and wirelessly update its maps,
  traffic and software
• Vehicles act as probe vehicles communicating with
  a central database and each other.

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Devices

• Research indicates that people dont want a stand
  alone traffic information device
• GPS equipped cell phone, Blackberry, etc.
• Requires web sites designed for mobile devices.

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E-mail

• Pre-trip information delivery
• Can be tuned to specific routes / times
• Requires timely e-mail delivery
• Useful for routine trips
• Not useful for unusual trips
• Requires e-mail to be accessible
• Can provide extensive information (routing
  instructions)

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Twitter

• WSDOT mountain pass reports via Twitter

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Traditional Mail
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Mail

• Ubiquitous
• Pre-trip Information
• Wide geographic area
• Wide variety of information
• Relatively low cost
• Not real time
• Does it get read?

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Telephone (hotline cell phone / conventional
phone)
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Telephone Hotline

• Almost Ubiquitous
• Automated system allows user to pick and choose
  information desired
• Hard to develop such a system
• Can user access phone line when information is
  needed and is wanted?
• 511

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Transit Watch - Kiosk
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Kiosks (web based?)

• Good stand-alone application
• Hard to keep operational (high upkeep cost)
• Requires connection to the data source
• Allows information display in locations devoid of
  electronics
• Accessible to all
• Multi-function kiosk? (something besides
  transportation information)

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Public / Private Operations

• Who runs the information dissemination system?
• Public agency
• Private company

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Public versus Private

• Cost to taxpayers
• Cost to users

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Public versus Private

• Who collects the data?
• Who processes the data?
• Who delivers the data?
• Who pays for these functions?

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Public versus Private

• What is the role of the public sector in all of
  this?
• What right does a private company have to data
  collected with tax dollars?

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Public versus Private

• How does an initial decision on the split between
  public and private information effect
• Competition in the marketplace?
• Consumer choice?