SWIFT ATIS: consumer reactions and marketability

The Seattle Wide-area Information For Travelers (SWIFT) Project successfully delivered traffic and transit information to 670 test participants in 1997 and 1998. This made SWIFT one of the largest tests of Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) in the United States to date. The usefulness of traveler information and what potential users thought about the delivery systems and devices provide valuable lessons for commercial deployment and insight into desires of the marketplace. The systems developed to obtain and distribute the traveler information remain in place and are being used for services provided by Seiko Communications and others through the Seattle SmartTrek Intelligent Transportation Systems deployment project. An in depth evaluation of the SWIFT project was conducted by SAIC that included components of market studies including consumer acceptance, deployment costs, and details of the system architecture. The findings in this paper came from those studies and the author's personal experience as the SWIFT project manager.