Tebb – A PROPOSAL FOR A PILOT PUBLIC TRANSPORT TIMETABLE COMPREHENSIBILITY STUDY 1978

Description

The 1978 TRRL working paper by R.G.P. Tebb proposes a pilot study to evaluate public-transport timetable comprehensibility, concentrating on matrix timetables. Prompted by prior surveys showing about half of respondents (including many schoolchildren) struggle with conventional 24-hour matrix timetables, the paper recommends testing alternative layouts using a realistic service timetable (retaining two printing errors). Key variables to test include 24-hour versus am/pm times, normal versus reflected layouts, other layout variations, reduced-size/typewritten forms and a Dutch-style route-strip addition; colour is excluded for the pilot. All formats preserve identical alpha-numeric content to isolate layout effects. A standardized questionnaire of ten journey-based tasks would measure comprehension and response times. Suggested pilot sample sizes are 25–50 subjects per format, with analysis by response distributions and methods used rather than simple right/wrong scores. The test database is based on bus services 240 and 241 (Appleby–Longworth via intermediate stops) with multiple timetable formats, a code legend, route strips, figures and comparative examples.