Personalized Public-Transport Guidance Using Mobile End Devices

Abstract

Mobility is a vital part of human life. Mobility needs can be met in a variety of ways: motorized and non-motorized individual traffic, local public transport using buses and trains, or mixed systems like taxis and park and ride systems. Individual traffic in particular causes major environment problems and problems of traffic congestion. Strengthening public transport is often favored, but this preference is not reflected in the number of local transport users. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that a central problem involved in local public transport usage is its complexity. The article presented here develops demands on a personalized local public transport guidance system, analyzes existing systems and presents a solution for a personalized support system for users of local public transport systems. The software Hermes was developed for this purpose. It accompanies the travelers through all steps of public traffic usage — from checking time tables to purchasing tickets to a navigation system for pedestrians guiding the user to a street address destination.