TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN EUROPE

There is a current focus in the United States toward providing travelers with information that enables them to make informed decisions about their schedules, modes, and routes of travel. U.S. transportation agencies are developing traveler information products that are coupled with weather, location, event, and emergency information. The scan team visited cities in Spain, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, and England that have established traveler information products and services that reflect all transportation modes. The timing for the tour also allowed the team to examine European practices that could be applied in implementing "511" telephone traveler information services in the United States. The scan team evaluated findings in information content, customer needs, business/cost recovery models, technology applications, consistency and standards, and legal and policy issues and made specific recommendations for applications in the United States.