The driver as an active learner: customising real time traveller information
Charles Karl, Neil E. Béchervaise · 2003
While traveller information services deliver increasingly sophisticated incident reports, journey times and other such information, driver response has remained lukewarm. We suggest that the problem lies in understanding the driver rather than improving the content. This paper reports that drivers principally learn from their experiences and addresses fundamental questions arising from an Australian study identifying how drivers learn to apply available information. Preliminary data from the study suggests that commuter drivers travelling a new route for the first time display no more expertise than novices. When presented with dynamic, customised traveller information, the study suggests that commuter drivers enter a learning curve affected by previous experience and immediate need. Design of an effective traveller information system, it is argued, necessitates the targeted provision of information, sensitive to this evolving driver capacity.