Corridors of uncertainty: information, technology and planning for secure and confident travel by public transport

This paper reports interim findings from an ongoing project focusing on the role of technologies in enhancing personal security on public transport (PT). The aim is to explore how technology might be designed and deployed to counteract negative perceptions and experiences of personal security to boost patronage of PT, and utilizes a scenarios approach in a series of workshops. The method creates a baseline understanding of how personal security issues are currently addressed, and identifies potential future issues and how they might be tackled. The paper focuses on the role of PT traveller information in supporting personal security in travel. Information is a major source of confidence and reassurance when travelling and can greatly support perceptions of personal security in travel. There have been significant advances in recent years in the quantity of information available (including the advent of Open Data) and in delivery mechanisms, particularly mobile platforms. However, significant issues remain, particularly in terms of information quality, its representation in the public realm and its ability to support certain users such as the elderly, disabled and rural dwellers. The differences in the relationship between information requirements and related commercial imperatives is shown to be perhaps the critical factor in determining the alternative pathways and associated services, technologies and personal security outcomes which emerge under the different scenarios.