Effects from usage of pre-trip information and passenger scheduling strategies on waiting times in public transport: an empirical survey based on a dedicated smartphone application

Public Transport https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-019-00220-1 ORIGINAL PAPER Effects from usage of pre‑trip information and passenger scheduling strategies on waiting times in public transport: an empirical survey based on a dedicated smartphone application Ulrik Berggren1,2 · Karin Brundell‑Freij1,2,3 · Helena Svensson1,2 · Anders Wretstrand1,2 Accepted: 14 November 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 Abstract Waiting times are important indicators of the degree of travel time optimisation and other behavioural traits among public transport (PT) passengers. As previous studies have shown, the level and usage of pre-trip information regarding schedule or realtime departures are important factors that influence the potential to realise travel time savings by enabling PT passengers to optimise waiting times. Most empirical evidence regarding the revealed PT travel behaviour concerning information levels is based on manual interviews or traditional travel surveys, in which there is a risk that the actual context of where and when the choice of departure time was made is not taken into account. This paper reports the results of a travel survey based on a dedicated smartphone application applied in a field study in a Swedish mid-size urban and regional context. Context-aware notification prompting was used to allow respondents to state their use of pre-trip information as well as whether they had pre-planned their trip and how contingent planning aids were used for time optimisation. The implications on passenger waiting times of the use of information regarding departure times by passengers were emphasised during analyses of the resulting data, along with personal characteristics, in which auxiliary sources such as timetable data and Automatic Vehicle Location were utilised to determine ground truth trip trajectories and trip-contextual factors. The results indicate the significance of having access to pre-trip information, especially for long trips above one hour’s duration, in order to pre-plan and thereby optimise waiting times. In addition, the use and source of pre-trip information differ among age and gender groups. Trip purpose and time of day to some extent determine waiting times and choice of trip optimisation strategy (arrival or departure time). Keywords Public transport · Travel information · Waiting times · Planning strategies * Ulrik Berggren Extended author information available on the last page of the article 13 Vol.:(0123456789) U. Berggren et al. 1 Introduction Urban population growth and related mobility challenges motivate the expansion of public transport systems in order to cater for increased ridership without loss of end-user attractiveness. The resulting increase in system complexity and congestion imposes increasing challenges for passengers seeking to minimise their effort of travelling as well as for operators in managing the resulting increase in passenger flows. The growing public availability of increasingly specific information regarding public transport (PT) connections, for example, both scheduled and actual departures, has the potential to address both these issues in a cost-efficient way thanks to technological advancements in the electronic dissemination of both pre-trip and en route PT information.1 In the literature, these electronic passenger information systems containing real-time (travel) information—RT(T)I—are sometimes termed advanced public transport (or transit) traveller information systems—A(P) TTIS (Nuzzolo et al. 2015). They can be based on site-specific equipment (signs and displays on vehicles and at stops and stations) or on personal devices such as smartphones and personal computers (Fonzone 2015; Ghahramani and Brakewood 2016; Harmony and Gayah 2017; Mulley et al. 2017). The information content on stationary or vehicle-based displays usually comprises scheduled and actual departure times, while journey planners and the like, available through personal devices, also to an increasing degree include itineraries with updated departure and arrival times of connecting services at transfer points (for example, as described by Cats et al. 2016). Waiting times, particularly under uncertainty, have been shown to be perceived as being significantly more onerous than other time components of a PT trip (Wardman et al. 2016). However, both perceived and actual waiting times can be mitigated by the adoption of pre-trip or en route information (Brakewood and Watkins 2018). Moreover, in microeconomic consumer choice theory, the role of information is essential in forming the foundation for the individual’s trade-offs between different utilities and disutilities. However, the demand for information may be triggered by situations where: (1) the trade-off between options is obscured by some degree of uncertainty (Chorus et al. 2006; Farag and Lyons, 2008) and (2) the consumer is not sufficiently acquainted with the options in order to having developed habitual behaviour (as convincingly shown by Aarts et al. (1997) in an experimental and hypothetical test with students’ judgment of travel options). In addition, Lyons (2006), who subdivides the use of information into the planning and the execution phase of a trip, underlines the importance of taking the mental effort of pre-trip planning and associated information search into consideration. He was subsequently able to foster these arguments in the findings of a qualitative study on the search of pre-trip travel information (Farag and Lyons, 2008) where he found no evidence for modal shift as a behavioural response to information—instead, information is mainly sought ahead 1 See, for example, Harmony and Gayah (2017) for a recent study of the North American context. In Sweden, 90% of all PT authorities provide (real-time) travel information through smartphone apps, according to the Swedish Public Transport Association (Svensk kollektivtrafik 2017). 13 Waiting times in public transport: an empirical survey of performing complex or unfamiliar journeys and/or where there is uncertainty due to service disruptions. The latter is also indicated in a survey previously presented by Peirce (2003), which, however, was made before the advent of the current widespread use of hand-held internet-access devices among PT passengers (see also Daduna and Voss, 1996). This rapid adoption of smartphones and associated applications providing RTI among the population of PT passengers in most developed parts of the world has motivated a proliferation of research on how the existence of this information affects passenger behaviour. As Gentile et al. (2016) note, the type of information passengers possess—be it past experience of perceived disutility or through an electronic aid—and where this is acquired, may determine their course of action. The literature on behavioural impacts and use of RTI may roughly be subdivided into an analytic and an empirical strand. Brakewood and Watkins (2018) provide a comprehe (...truncated)