Advanced telematics for travel decisions: a quantitative analysis of the Stopwatch project in Southampton

The effect of telematics technology on public transport use is analyzed on the basis of a theoretical model. Two possible mechanisms (reduction of uncertainty and a better choice of bus options, based on a general cost-minimization assumption) that may stimulate bus use are distinguished. The model is empirically tested by using microdata from the Southampton Stopwatch telematics project, which were collected both before and after the introduction of this telematics information service. The estimation of the model leads to interesting findings in explaining (anticipated) increases in bus use, for both the before and the after survey. It is shown that uncertainty reduction is the more important effect of the new system. Differences in the before and after data are found concerning the increase in bus use, but the explanatory model proves consistent over the two samples.