User Requirements for the Design of Efficient Mobile Devices to Navigate Through the Public Transport Network,

The aim of the research is to identify the needs of public transport users when using a real time traveller information system. To this extent, a quali-quantitative approach (web-questionnaire and focus group administered to a sample of transport users and transport companies in the cities of Torino and Dresden) has been used to investigate: 1) the attributes that such device should have to attract more users to PT; 2) the PT companies’ requirements and the barriers they envisage to the use of GALILEO-based applications on mobile devices. The results have allowed to design “Smart-Way”, a smartphone application to navigate in real time throughout the public transport network. The use of ICT for transport has emerged as a big opportunity for the disabled people because the real time navigator can consistently improve the quality of their life, increasing their ability to travel. The simplicity and the ergonomics of the application are crucial. The cost to sustain the application is a threat due to the low WTP declared by the samples and confirmed by the literature. Another threat is that some users do not want to be tracking their location 24/7. The lack of standards and consistency with other European ITS applications as well as the mistrust of transport operators to make their data available to competitors will definitely be an obstacle for the implementation of Smart-Way in European transport companies.