Rapid prototyping of intelligent transit information systems

In this study, evaluation of impacts on users for transit information system usage is done in two stages. In the first stage, a simple transit information system was developed and tested with in-house participants (subjects). Due to the lack of literature in similar studies, the first stage experiments help in designing an actual prototype for conducting final in-lab experiments to evaluate impacts on solo drivers' and transit users' travel decisions. This paper discusses the first stage of experiments and analysis. The proposed first stage simulation experiment study will investigate the types of information sought and the time spent on each type of information by in-home participants. The experiment uses a PC-based transit information system prototype and has a menu-based information access system. This paper contains description of study area, road network, transit information system design, experiments and analysis.