OneBusAway Research

OneBusAway supports a variety of research at the University of Washington on improving the usability of public transportation. Our work is all open-source software so that others might reuse and build upon our efforts.

OneBusAway Publications

  • Watkins, K., Ferris, B., Borning, A., Rutherford, S., and Layton, D. (2011) "Where Is My Bus? Impact of mobile real-time information on the perceived and actual wait time of transit riders." Transportation Research Part A 45. 839–848.
  • Ferris, B. (2011) "OneBusAway: Improving the Usability of Public Transit."  PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, 2011.
  • Ferris, B., Watkins, K., and Borning, A. (2011) "OneBusAway: Behavioral and Satisfaction Changes Resulting from Providing Real-Time Arrival Information for Public Transit." Proceedings of the 2011 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.
  • Watkins, K., Ferris, B., and Rutherford, S. (2010) "Explore: An Attraction Search Tool for Transit Trip Planning."  Journal of Public Transportation. Vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 111-128. 2010.
  • Ferris, B., Watkins, K., and Borning, A. (2010) "Location-Aware Tools for Improving Public Transit Usability." IEEE Pervasive Computing. Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 13-19. Jan-Mar 2010.
  • Ferris, B., Watkins, K., and Borning, A. (2009) "OneBusAway: A Transit Traveller Information System." Proceedings of Mobicase 2009. San Diego, CA, USA, October 26-29, 2009.

Funding

OneBusAway is a collaborative effort with scholarly and financial support from many sources.  Original development and research studies were financially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants IIS-0705898 and CNS-0905384, Nokia Research Center, Google, the USDOT Eisenhower program, the ARCS fellowship program, TransNOW, and the Bullitt Foundation.  OneBusAway currently continues to be hosted in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, with financial support for ongoing maintenance and operation in Puget Sound provided by King County Metro, Sound Transit and Pierce Transit.

Real-Time Transit Information Research

If you are interested in other studies pertaining to the impact of real-time information in transit
systems, here is a reverse chronological list of recent research in this exciting area.

  • Tang, L., Thakuriah, P.V. (2012). "Will Psychological Effects of Real-Time Transit
    Information Systems Lead to Ridership Gain?" Transportation Research Record, Vol. 2216,
    pp. 67-74.
  • Tang, L., Thakuriah, P.V. (2012). “Ridership effects of real-time bus information system:
    A case study in the City of Chicago.” Transportation Research Part C, v.22, 2012 June,
    p.146(16)
  • Fries, Ryan, Dunning, Anne E., and Chowdhury Mashrur A. (2011). “University Traveler
    Value of Potential Real-Time Transit Information.” Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 14,
    No. 2.
  • Schweiger, C. (2011). “Use and Deployment of Mobile Device Technology for Real-Time
    Transit Information.” Transit Cooperative Research (TCRP) Synthesis 91. Transportation
    Research Board of the National Academies. Washington DC.
  • Barbeau, Sean, Georggi, Nevine, and Winters, Philip. (2010). “Global Positioning System
    Integrated with Personalized Real-Time Transit Information from Automatic Vehicle
    Location.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of Transportation Research Board, No.
    2143. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington DC.
  • Politis, I., Papaioannou, P., Basbas, S., & Dimitriadis, N. (2010). “Evaluation of a bus
    passenger information system from the users’ point of view in the city of Thessaloniki,
    Greece.” Transportation Economics, Vol. 29, (1), pp. 249-255.
  • Zhang, Feng. (2010). “Traveler Responses to Real-Time Transit Passenger Information
    Systems.” Doctoral Dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
  • Caulfield, B. and M. Mahony. (2009). A Stated Preference Analysis of Real-Time Public
    Transit Stop Information. Journal of Public Transportation, Volume 12, Issue Number 3.
  • Zhang, F., Q. Shen, and K. Clifton. (2008). “Examination of traveler responses to real-time
    information about bus arrivals using panel data.” Transportation Research Record: Journal
    of the Transportation Research Board 2082: 107–115.
  • Dziekan, Katrin. (2008). “Ease-of-Use in Public Transportation – A User Perspective on
    Information and Orientation Aspects.” Doctoral Dissertation. Royal Institute of Technology,
    Stockholm, Sweden.
  • Dziekan, K. and K. Kottenhoff. (2007). “Dynamic at-stop real-time information displays for
    public transport: effects on customers.” Transportation Research Part A 41(6): 489–501.
  • Caulfield, B. and M. Mahony. (2007). "An Examination of the Public Transport Information
    Requirements of Users." IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 8(1): 21-
    30.
  • Dziekan, K. and A. Vermeulen. (2006). “Psychological Effects of and Design Preferences for
    Real-Time Information Displays.” Journal of Public Transportation 9: 71-89.
  • Mishalani, R., M.M. McCord, and J. Wirtz. (2006). “Passenger Wait Time Perceptions at
    Bus Stops: Empirical Results and Impact on Evaluating Real-Time Bus Arrival Information.”
    Journal of Public Transportation 9(2): 89-106.
  • Schweiger, C. (2003). “Real-Time Bus Arrival Information Systems.” Transit Cooperative
    Research Program Synthesis No. 48. Washington DC: Transportation Research Board of
    the National Academies.
  • Multisystems, Inc. (2003). “Strategies for Improved Traveler Information.” Transit
    Cooperative Research (TCRP) Report 92. Transportation Research Board of the National
    Academies. Washington DC.
  • Khattak, Yim, and Prokopy (2003). “Willingness to pay for travel information.” Transportation
    Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. Volume 11, Issue 2, April 2003, Pages 137–159.
  • Basford, Burke and Pickett. (2003). “Real-Time Bus Information Business Case Research.”
    Unpublished Project Report PR/T/148/02. Copyright TRL Limited, London, England.