RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR MASS TRANSPORT IN ESPOO AND LANSIVAYLA (WESTWARD FROM HELSINKI), STAGE II "DURING"

In the Helsinki metropolitan area, a passenger information system for mass transport is being developed in stages. The results of this research will be utilised in the development of the system and allocation of investments. In the city of Espoo, a real-time passenger information system for bus transport, ELMI, was implemented from 1996 to 1998. The study of the influences of the system includes three stages: before, soon after, i.e. this research, and one to two years after the implementation. The proportion of real-time buses is approximately 100%. The research has been and will be carried out by interviewing passengers at bus stops, by videotaping passengers' behaviour at bus stops and by clarifying the drivers' and bus companies' views on the matter. This report examines the results of the stage II implemented soon after the introduction of the information system in the autumn 1998. The results show that the passengers' views on the system are mainly positive and it is more widely accepted than at stage I, in the autumn 1996, before the system was implemented. Altogether 78% of the passengers interviewed after the introduction of the system consider the system good or very good, and just 5% are of the opposite opinion. A total of 78% support the expansion of the system and 22% object to it. The electronic information boards at the bus stops are already now used more than paper schedules. Fewer people find out the departure time of the bus beforehand and there is not as much variation in the passengers' experience of the waiting times as there was at the first stage. Critical feedback on the system was mainly focused on unreliable waiting times shown on the information boards. The result was expected as at this stage, approximately 90% of the waiting times shown on the information boards and monitors are based on driving times from 1995.