Travel Information: Time to Drop the Labels?

This paper argues that the literature on travel information and its potential as a travel demand management tool suffers from confusing use of terminology. It shows how labels such as “advanced,” “personalized,” and “dynamic”-when referring to travel information services-have been either implicitly or explicitly assigned a variety of often quite different meanings in various contexts. As a result, these labels, and similar labels such as “predictive” and “intelligent,” often obfuscate rather than explain what kind of travel information is actually being discussed. Several options for avoiding this confusion in future research are presented. For example, one option is to entirely forego the use of labels and instead describe travel information services in terms of their relevant characteristics and functionalities. Another option is to start using recently proposed definitions and International Standards Organization standards, with the aim of achieving a more formal building ground for travel-information-related research than is currently available.