In many parts of the world today, drivers have access to a growing range of traveller information services, from traffic reports on the radio and variable message signs along roads to customised information that could be delivered to personal mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) as well as to the global navigation units appearing in many vehicles.
The key commercial question is, what information does the driver want? So far, while traveller information services deliver increasingly sophisticated incident reports, journey times and other such information, driver response has remained lukewarm. This thesis suggests that the problem lies in understanding the driver rather than improving the content. Therefore, it has sought to establish: Q1. What do drivers already know?; Q2. How did they learn it?; Q3. What do drivers need now and in the future as they continue to learn?
And for traveller information service providers, the related question:
Q4. How can information providers accommodate drivers' learning?
This thesis reports a qualitative case study based on ten in-depth interviews with drivers who had previously participated in a six week trial receiving customised traveller information about their commutes to and from work, through their mobile phones.
The thesis reports that drivers principally learn from their experiences in processes well established in the adult learning literature. It has found that commuter drivers can be regarded as experts on their commutes, but that the domain of any drivers' expertise is limited both spatially and temporally.
When presented with dynamic, customised traveller information, it was found that commuter drivers enter a learning curve affected by previous experience and immediate need in which learning to access and utilise appropriate travel information is a dynamic process. Drivers learn about using traveller information, they learn about the types of traveller information available and they also learn whether to trust the information provider.
As adults who learn and think, drivers see the role of an information service provider as facilitating their own understanding of the phenomena of traffic they face everyday and, in turn, supporting their learning to make better informed decisions. The thesis concludes that customised traveller information will become effective when it meets the current understanding and needs of the driver as an active learner whose information requirements change over time and from time to time.
This thesis contributes to an increased understanding of drivers, their knowledge and how they learn. As a result, it offers traveller information providers with a substantially increased understanding of how to meet their drivers' needs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216593 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Karl, Charles A., n/a |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Charles A. Karl |
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