InfoRio, focus group sessions to test potential for a personal real time travel information concept for public transport, (no 03071, 23 p.)

This paper describes the development of a market research method in order to establish the potential demand for a Personal Real Time Travel Information (PRTTI) concept applied to public transport (PT) in Rio de Janeiro, called InfoRio. In order to receive personal travel information on PT services the customer must register via internet or by sending an SMS. A few minutes before his trip he will receive a SMS informing him the dynamically estimated time of arrival of his bus service at his desired bus stop. The Triade model – a model that establishes the motivation, capacity and opportunity of customer segmentations to buy or use a service – has been adapted to travel behavior in order to identify the market segments and has been tested in a pilot survey. The following segmentations were identified: (1) non users of InfoRio service; (2) choice users that will deliberate over the received information (3) habit users that will include the information in their travel behavior. A focus group session is used to get better insight in the customer segment with the highest score on the Triade scale, which confirmed their interest in using the service. Due to the low number of respondents – nine out of forty— we cannot give indications about potential market size. The main benefit they attributed to the service is that it increases the reliability of the bus service and as a consequence they can better plan their activities. We concluded that the developed method, consisting out of a revealed preference survey and followed by focus group sessions with the segmentation groups, gives a good insight in the market potential of a new service and is easy to execute. Future surveys should have more respondents and focus group sessions with all segmentation classes should be executed to develop a detailed profile of the potential market of InfoRio.