Influence of mobility information services on travel behavior

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) provide new options to ease the individual’s access to all kinds of transport modes. This is linked to the expectation that ICT offer the possibility to influence travel behavior in a way that traffic problems can be reduced. While a considerable number especially of information services is already available, there is little knowledge about both the acceptance and use of these services and their influence on transport behavior. The fullpaper will present results from a German national telephone survey about user needs and user affinities as to traffic information, mobility and use of ICT. The survey explores people’s attitudes and uses of traffic information as well as its influence on travel behavior. The methodological approach consists in the investigation of current behavioral patterns on the one hand. On the other hand the interviewed persons were set in different hypothetical situations that implied the use of a transport information service or a navigation system. The data lead to the identification of different user groups of information services by a cluster analysis. It can be shown that there exists a relation between the user type and the influence that transport information services have on travel behavior. ICT use for travel may even be assumed that it put forward social exclusion due to the dependence of the availability on mobile devices. Future development of information services should consider that it does not favor special groups within the society.