Identifying Pain Points and Solutions in Intermodal Travel: A Qualitative Study based on Interviews with Mobility Experts

Abstract

Travelling is part of human’s everyday life either for work or in the free-time. A journey often involves the use of multiple transportation modes, e.g., bus or train. Hereby, users require easy-accessible information to travel in an efficient way and to be able to switch services when it is necessary. If the users' information demand is not covered, negatively experienced events or episodes – so called pain points – could develop. The consideration of pain points is particularly relevant with regard to intermodal transport as they might inhibit regular car drivers to switch to public transport. Therefore, identifying users’ pain points during intermodal travel has high relevance to offer suitable and efficient mobility services. Moreover, mobility providers or other stakeholders could be an important source of information to get further insights into users’ pain points. In this research work, we conducted nine qualitative interviews with mobility experts from the private and public mobility sector. The focus of the interviews was to identify aspects during intermodal travel that can cause negative experiences for users. On the basis of the interviews, an overview of pain points was compiled. The most frequently reported pain point across all interviews was a complicated planning- and/or booking process during intermodal transport (6 mentions). Currently, users need multiple apps to use the entire mobility offer across a travel chain. So far, there are only a few approaches on how to bundle the booking to achieve higher usability and comfort. In general, unreliability of mobility services was discussed as it often results in missing the connection in intermodal travel (4 mentions). Moreover, a lack of real-time information within a journey could complicate the travel if deviations occur and a route has to be re-planned (3 mentions). Additionally, the mobility experts identified the lack of accessibility of the booking systems as pain point particularly for users with little technical experience such as elderly people (3 mentions). Insufficient technological knowledge inhibits the use of such technological systems. The question arises how mobility providers deal with such pain points. Thus, we additionally examined possible solution approaches and obstacles among the mobility providers. We discussed in the interviews how cooperation between the mobility providers and the integration of the different booking systems into one common booking system could create better accessibility for the user. Furthermore, an improved digital infrastructure can contribute to better reliability. However, this is associated with high costs and could represent a barrier from the providers’ perspectives. Overall, the qualitative interviews provided practical insights into which pain points exist, how pain points are dealt with and to what extent the user perspective is addressed in current solutions. Based on the collected ideas, future work focuses on the development of user-centered design methods - e.g., virtual reality studies, to identify informational demands early on and to offer efficient mobility services.