Traveler Response to Transportation System Changes Handbook, Third Edition: Chapter 11, Transit Information and Promotion (2004) / Chapter Skim
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11-1 11 -- Transit Information and Promotion OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY A subset of transit marketing, namely transit information and promotion, is the focus of this chapter. Traveler response to mass market information, mass market promotions, targeted information, targeted promotions, customer information services, and real-time transit information dissemination is examined.
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11-2 pricing of all types. For traveler response information on introduction or modification of multimodal and transit facilities and services, see Chapters 2 through 8.
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11-3 public about the availability of transit services and to encourage use of those services. Print and electronic media -- either via advertising or publicity, direct mailings, special events, free ride promotions, websites, telephone information numbers, and other approaches are all used separately and in combination.
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11-4 Ongoing Customer Information Services. These services, available on a mostly continuous basis, are designed to provide individual members of the public with the information they need to use transit services in an area.
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11-5 underfunded at transit agencies. Further, it is difficult to measure the impact of general image and awareness marketing.
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11-6 Adding incentives such as free rides and give-aways to mass market campaigns normally heightens at least the short-term effect. Mass-market promotion activities with incentives, mostly Try Transit Week and special day type programs, have achieved 4 to 35 percent ridership increases -- and probably more on small operations -- during or immediately after promotions.
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11-7 In addition to one-time or periodic efforts, transit systems continuously provide route, schedule, and fare information using techniques that may influence ridership. Telephone information systems are the established interactive approach.
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11-8 information efforts are covered under the heading "Targeted Information," and under other categories to follow. Table 11-1 Examples of Transit Mass Market Information Campaigns Agency (Year)
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11-9 The limited evidence available suggests positive results for mass market information campaigns when the product is not for some reason unattractive. It seems reasonable to infer that all of the reported campaigns followed a period of relative inactivity as far as proactive information dissemination is concerned, although this is not known with certainty.
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11-10 Multifaceted Programs A more complex array of information and promotion programs, not all neatly fitting within the "Mass Market Information" category, was developed and implemented at three Idaho transit systems in 1985 and 1986. The transit systems were the Pocatello Urban Transit system, the Community and Rural Transportation (CART)
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11-11 tend to be short lived, with ridership usually returning to pre-promotional levels, some areas have experienced slight long-term ridership gains. Table 11-2.
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11-12 For example, Oakville Transit in the Canadian Province of Ontario celebrated its 15th anniversary on Saturday, September 5, 1987. Oakville Transit used the occasion to raise awareness of transit and to promote a positive image by offering a 15¢ fare that day.
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11-13 in increasing ridership, but the first phase image campaign had more influence on attitudes toward public transit (Northwest Research Group, 1998)
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11-14 The downside end of the spectrum of documented general marketing campaign results is represented by the three Pittsburgh examples in Table 11-3. As indicated, the marketing efforts were accompanied by ridership declines of 1 to 8 percent.
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11-15 Table 11-4 Examples of Information Targeted by Market Segment Agency (Year) Program Cost Impact Targeted by Existing Route Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines (1998)
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11-16 Information Focused on Service Changes The contribution of informational/promotional activities to the results of introducing new or modified transit services can, for the most part, only be surmised. Traveler responses to the promotion and to the service changes themselves are necessarily concurrent.
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11-17 Table 11-5 Examples of Information Targeted at Public Affected by Service Changes Agency (Year) Program Cost Impact Rail Service Reintroduction Chicago Transit Authority (1996)
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11-18 Targeted Promotion Targeted promotions offer the combination of transit information (usually) and some type of incentive, typically free fares, providing individuals with the background necessary to ride transit and an economic reason to try it out.
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11-19 Table 11-6 Examples of Promotion Targeted at Public Affected by Service Changes Agency (Year) Program Cost Impact New Express Bus Service St.
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11-20 results indicate that on the order of 20 percent of those requesting the half-price May pass may have been new riders. The low continuation rate into June suggested to the study author that this aspect of the campaign was not well focused on the Pass-by-Mail program (Pedersen, 1989)
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11-21 providing a small experimental control. The three routes had similar service frequencies, hours of service, ridership levels, and characteristics of riders.
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11-22 A total of 29,155 brochures were mailed; 16,130 with information only and 13,025 with information and a free ride coupon. The coupons, good for all fare zones on the route, required that a short survey on the back be completed prior to use.
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11-23 examples do not provide enough specific response information to allow generalized conclusions, except that all the cited programs appear to have been beneficial. Table 11-8 Examples of Promotions Targeted by Consumer Market Group Agency (Year)
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11-24 The targeted groups covered in the examples are new residents, schools, senior citizens, and potentially off-peak users of transit. This is not an all-inclusive list of consumer groups; others not infrequently targeted include tourists and commuters.
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11-25 percentages of shopping and social/entertainment trips emerging from the new mover questionnaire results. Nonetheless, the 4.2 days per week for CTA use as obtained from the CTA Customer Satisfaction Survey (Chicago Transit Authority, 1999)
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11-26 of having attracted non-work, non-commute trips, which occur during off-peak periods, was noted. The New Mover program also appeared to be helping establish transit ridership patterns among younger adults, a good harbinger for future ridership.
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11-27 contact with potential users -- often accompanied by a free pass -- is more extensively described in the case study "Individualized Transit Marketing in Europe."1 Table 11-10 Examples of One-on-One Personal Promotion Agency (Year) Program Cost Impact Telemarketing Tri-Met (Portland, OR)
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11-28 Transit mode choice among the test group participants in Kassel more than doubled, from 8 to 17 percent 1 year after the individualized marketing was conducted. Use of transit by the test group participants continued to be strong 4 years after the test, with 16 percent of trips still using bus and tramway.
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11-29 Oral instructions from bus drivers, fellow passengers and neighbors are acknowledged to be of major importance, but their effects don't lend themselves to isolation and quantification. Therefore this section on customer information services is limited to covering traveler response to bus stop signs, telephone information systems, and Internet websites.
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11-30 Table 11-11 Examples of Signage, Telephone, and Website Customer Information Services Agency (Year) Program Cost Impact Bus Stop Signs Milwaukee County Transit System (1970s)
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11-31 Automated Telephone Information Systems Automated telephone information systems are coming into play. The "560 system" in Ottawa-Carleton has for some time been a key component of O-C Transpo's customer information service.
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11-32 Transit website provision and use reflects the dramatic increase in Internet use nationwide. Household Internet access as tracked by the U.S.
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11-33 always been the most-used pages, with maps in second or third place. Other service-related pages receiving at least 1 percent of "hits" include fares, pass information, trip planners, and "how to ride" pages (Schaller, 2002)
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11-34 followed by freeway information, 14 percent; bicycle routes, 11 percent; and vanpool/carpool information, 5 percent. Of 230 individuals responding to the October 1995 online survey, 47 percent reported commuting by bus versus 46 percent driving alone.
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11-35 other transportation and transit websites in the Bay Area, including that of Heavy Rail Transit operator Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) , included in Table 11-12.
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11-36 The GoVentura Website of the Ventura County Transportation Commission was initiated in 1995. Ventura County, lying northwest of Los Angeles, is on the whole an exurban county.
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11-37 fares are provided. Most trip planners offer walking directions in lieu of maps (Bay Area Transit Information, 2002; Urban Transportation Monitor, 2002)
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11-38 rated the website in general and specific features as very helpful, and another 6 to 18 percent reported it was somewhat helpful. Males made up 57 percent of survey respondents, which reflects more the characteristics of Internet users than transit riders, where females tend to be in the majority.
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11-39 forecasts of service outcomes. A typical example is anticipated arrival time of the next bus or train.
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11-40 An online traveler information demonstration that measured traveler response was run in the mid-1990s in the Twin Cities, focusing on the multi-modal I-394 corridor. Corridor buses were equipped for automated vehicle location (AVL)
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11-41 wait time both before and during the test. A closer examination indicated that riders waiting for a specific bus underestimated their wait time, while those with destinations served by the next available bus overestimated the wait time.
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11-42 information for 65 percent of passenger journeys in the region (London Transport, 2001)
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11-43 The influence that the characteristics of alternative travel modes have on either mobility or travel choices is dependent, however, on the urban dweller's knowledge and perception of these characteristics. How travelers respond to transit service availability will turn on what information they have and the impetus to act upon it; thus the role of transit information and promotion campaigns and systems.
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11-44 Rider Turnover and Frequency of Use Amount of transit ridership is a function of both how many people use transit at all, and how many trips via transit are made per day by those who are transit users. The first of these two conditions is in turn a function of rider turnover -- how many new riders there are in any given period of time, balanced against how many cease riding.
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11-45 Other ridership surveys conducted over the years offer additional perspectives on turnover among transit riders. Surveys of bus passengers conducted 3 to 5 years after the opening of the Shirley Highway High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)
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11-46 Studies of the potential for transit use conducted in connection with development of individualized marketing in Europe examined transit options for individual trips in 115 German cities from perspectives of both actual and perceived conditions. For context, it is pertinent that 16 percent of all trips in the average city were being made on transit.
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11-47 The Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines operation is regarded as one of the simplest, most easily understood transit systems in California. Nevertheless, results of a joint focus group of riders and non-riders demonstrate that a fairly sophisticated expertise must be developed to use the transit service for all trips.
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11-48 A Chapter 9 example involving a larger urban area is that of Omnitrans in Riverside, California, where both route and schedule simplification were undertaken. Ridership increased by 20 percent, five times the increase in bus hours of service.
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11-49 A 1993 test in Los Angeles, conducted in a downtown shopping mall with 120 participants, was designed to examine the provision and use of transit information provided by the area's telephone information system. Use of both human operators and a synthesized voice system for obtaining trip itinerary advice was tested, coupled with participant interviews.
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11-50 ATIS, the information use response and the degree to which travel behavior is in turn affected are both included. The interrelationships between these stages are pictured as depending on learning.
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11-51 population. These experiments are described in the case study "Individualized Transit Marketing in Europe." Table 11-15 Percentage Awareness Obtained by U.S.
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11-52 The information in Table 11-16 can also be used to estimate the decay in the impact of the individualized marketing. This decay appears to be extraordinarily low for these two initial test cases.
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11-53 In Norfolk, Virginia, free ride coupons mailed to residents along selected bus routes were used more for off-peak trips than for peak travel (Capo and Messmer, 1987)
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11-54 estimating secondary impacts relating to VMT, energy, and the environment has not been a priority. There appears to be no reason why the impact would not be, at the very worst, neutral.
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11-55 One means to reduce the transit agency's "give-away" in promotions involving incentives is to tailor the incentives to the likely individual market segments. Under this approach, freefare incentives are focused on new riders, while current riders receive non-fare incentives (Oram, 1987)
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11-56 services (Wirthlin Worldwide and FJCandN, 2000)
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11-57 promotions. Ridership levels were monitored and outside influences were documented.
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11-58 The image campaign used humorous newspaper and radio advertisements to link public transit with other important community issues -- primarily economic development and education. The second program used television spots, along with radio and newspaper advertisements, featuring Green Bay Packer football players, promoting transit ridership.
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11-59 Table 11-18 Southeast Wisconsin Revenue Transit Passengers as Related to Promotion Percent Change in Ridership, 1997 Versus 1996 Month Marketing and External Events Milwaukee Waukesha Racine Kenosha Region January Fares higher in 1997 in Racine 1.2% -0.5% -19.5% -5.5% 0.3% February -0.6 3.6 -18.3 -2.1 -1.3 March 1.2 1.1 -16.7 -2.9 0.4 April I-94 resurfacing; extra service a 4.4 14.0 -16.4 7.8 3.8 May April 25 to May 15 Promotion 2.4 9.5 -8.2 0.9 2.1 June 10.8 29.4 -13.2 10.9 10.2 July 5.0 31.2 -12.3 5.2 4.7 August 7.6 13.5 -17.1 -6.6 6.6 September 5.7 8.3 n/a n/a n/a Note: a Resurfacing of I-94 in early April, and the extra bus service added as a mitigation measure, affected only Milwaukee and Waukesha. More… A number of conclusions were noted in the marketing study.
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11-60 Line riders. It included questions on advertisement recall and influence, possible future use by non-riders, and factors that might encourage increased ridership.
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11-61 The characteristics of riders and non-riders who remembered the advertisements and those who did not were explored. Non-riders who did not remember any of the advertising themes were more likely to have received their information from newspaper ads.
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11-62 Germany, and 27 completed demonstrations throughout Europe, is provided here. Other large-scale applications and demonstrations are underway.
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11-63 marketing effort were established for statistical control, providing a basis for estimating marketing effects separate from effects of transit service improvements. Results.
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11-64 Examination of the annual transit trips per capita results in Table 11-21 for the individual subgroups of the Target Group indicate that both interested non-regular users (Group I) and regular users (Group R)
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11-65 increases among trip purpose categories and before and after transit trip purpose percentages were covered in Table 11-17 within the "Peak Versus Off-Peak Ridership Effects" subsection. A cost/benefit assessment building upon the test case and large scale application findings, and indicating that the individualized marketing approach is cost-effective, is reported on in the "Effectiveness and Benefit/Cost Findings" subsection under "Costs and Benefits of Promotion." More...
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11-66 Billheimer, J W., Moore, J
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11-67 Cutler, M., The Idaho Rural/Small City Cooperative Transportation Marketing Demonstration Project. Dynatrend, Inc.
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11-68 King County Department of Transportation, Transit Division, Service Development Section, "Six-Year Transit Development Plan 1996-2001: Status of Service Implementation and Preliminary Results" (October, 1998b)
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11-69 Port Authority of Allegheny County, "Advertising and Promotion Demonstration Program." Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, DC (1970)
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11-70 W.C. Gilman and Co., Inc., "The Radial Express And Suburban Crosstown Bus Rider." U.S.
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