What Is It?

• Traveler services information tells travelers about attractions and travel conditions along their route. The emphasis is on amenities rather than necessities. The type of information includes lodging rates and availability, location and availability of parking spaces, restaurants, entertainment venues, tourist sites and significant local features such as hospitals, airports, train stations and police stations. Traditionally, this information has been conveyed through guidebooks, roadside stands and tourist information booths.
• Advanced traveler services information systems communicate to travelers via on-board computers such as GM's Onstar and other wireless devices, broadcast radio, cell phone, Web phone and other mobile wireless digital communications devices. Computerized kiosks and dedicated phone lines can also communicate advanced traveler services information.
• The 511 Traffic Information Service is a telephone-based system that provides real-time information on road surface and weather conditions, accidents, road closures, work zones, public transportation scheduling and tourism.
• The database can be static or dynamic. An example of dynamic data would be a real-time list of available tickets to events, hotel rooms, parking spaces or restaurant reservations.
• Communication can be one-way or interactive.
• Wireless phone location technology is being explored for use in a system that can tell phone users about attractions near them whether they requested the information or not. See our Telecommunications Diagram on Internet-based Traveler Information for more information.

• Early advanced traveler information systems seemed to work best when they were targeted to a certain locale, such as Yosemite, Orlando or a downtown urban core, a specific event, such as the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, or a specific audience, such as, in France, vacationers and tourists in general.
• Users place a high value on accurate comprehensive data that is easy to find and understand. Conversely, users show little tolerance for unreliable devices or inaccurate information.
• The lack of standardized databases has hampered implementation of regional or national traveler services information systems using two-way wireless devices such as GM's Onstar, though if the number of cars equipped with such devices continues to grow at the current rapid rate, there may be enough market incentives for the creation of such services.
• There is no reliable evidence of the elasticity of demand for advanced traveler services information. However, when the toll-free number in Boston was replaced with a call costing 10 cents, use fell dramatically.
• Devices for multiple users in public spaces must be deployed in adequate numbers to make them highly visible, and they must be well-maintained, because one unproductive encounter can discourage repeat use.
• Privacy concerns have limited the use of location technology to communicate unsolicited, customized information, for example over Web-based phones.

• Some evidence suggests that travelers who use advanced traveler services information can reduce their travel time compared to those who use printed materials, which means less congestion and more efficient use of the transportation network.
• There is also some evidence that travelers who use a well-designed advanced traveler information system experience fewer accidents than those who consult printed maps.
• In France, the SERTI system has been shown to reduce congestion during discrete periods such as long weekends and national holidays.

• The cost of creating and updating a database. The lack of common, interchangeable databases from various regional sources makes it difficult to achieve economies of scale. Efforts to offset these costs by advertising or changing a participation fee risk undermining the databases' credibility among users and raise equity issues among potential subscribers. For example, a database limited to businesses that had paid a fee might not be comprehensive enough to be of any value.
• Installing and maintaining the communication devices in public spaces.
• Installing and maintaining the network for collecting and communicating the data to different devices.

• Yosemite Valley and the immediate region (the YATI system).
• Orlando (TravTek)
• Atlanta
• Boston (SmartTraveler)
• Seattle (SWIFT)
• France (SERTI)

Author: Phyllis Orrick