Balcombe and Vance – INFORMATION FOR BUS PASSENGERS 1996

Description

The 1996 TRL study reviewed bus passenger information across four UK regions using household/visitor surveys and public hall tests. It found good information is essential but much existing material is unused because people are unaware of it, cannot access it, or find it hard to understand. Key pre-travel needs are departure times, service frequency and route numbers; information is needed at home, at stops and in town centres. Conventional timetables are widely used for planning but suffer poor legibility, excessive detail and confusing layout. Recommendations include simplified, stop-specific displays, personalised printed timetables, promoted telephone enquiry services, and targeted use of real-time or interactive systems in busy or irregular-service locations. Information improvements could modestly raise demand (realistic uplift 0–5%) but cannot substitute for better frequency, reliability or fares; passengers generally will not accept higher fares to pay for information. The report calls for urgent design improvements, adherence to standards, and targeted pilots to test cost-effectiveness.