Users of new traveler information technologies: Lessons learned from the Atlanta traveler information showcase

The Atlanta Traveler Information Showcase was a U.S. Department of Transportation funded demonstration of Advanced Traveler Information Services that was conducted from June through September of 1996 throughout the Atlanta metropolitan region. With the spotlight on Atlanta as a result of the 1996 Olympics, the region provided an excellent opportunity for bringing Intelligent Transportation Systems in general and Advanced Traveler Information Services in particular to the attention of the traveling public and the media and other influential persons who were in Atlanta during the summer. Travelers, both visitors and residents, had the opportunity to experience five technologies that comprised the Showcase: in-vehicle devices, personal communication devices, World Wide Web site on the Internet, cable television program, and interactive television. This paper describes the methods used to target users, recruit and train them to use the technologies, and assess their experience. The strategy for selecting users had to balance the multiple objectives and constraints within the overall Showcase goal of achieving maximum exposure for traveler information services. Another important consideration was simply the number of devices or potential users that the technologies could reach. For example, only 100 in-vehicle devices were available to be installed in vehicles in the region, whereas the cable TV program had the potential to reach the 600,000 cable subscribers throughout the area. Training and promotion was customized for each technology, whereas survey forms to gather user feedback were made as consistent as possible to facilitate cross-technology comparisons. The paper highlights some of the lessons learned from the various user-related activities of the Showcase.