Brian Saville

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Introduction

• Brian Saville
• RoadStats, LLC
• GCM Travel Stats Web Site
• Developed With IDOT ITS
• Scott Lee, David Zavattero
• Started Work March 2004
• Companion Site To GCM Travel Site
• Focus On Historical Travel Times
• Charts
• Current Travel Time
• Average Travel Time
• Normal Travel Time Range
• Simple Tables Accompany Charts

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Planned Enhancements To GCM Travel StatsWeb Site

• Results of our User Survey

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Background

• Elicit user feedback to determine future site
  enhancements
• Gauge satisfaction with current site
• Propose list of possible enhancements to users
• Determine how users make use of site
• Gather basic user demographics (optional)

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Survey Overview

• Began August 25, 2006
• 195 responses in 75 days ended 11/7
• 32 Total Questions
• On average, 7 minutes to complete survey

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Site Differentiation

• Delineate GCM Travel GCM Travel Stats
• Focus user feedback on GCM Travel Stats
• Provided screen shot of each site
• 80.20 were not aware of delineation

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GCM Travelhttp//www.gcmtravel.com

• GCM Travel is a site that provides current travel
  time, construction, and other travel information
  and is operated by a government cooperative known
  as the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee (GCM) Priority
  Corridor.

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GCM Travel Statshttp//www.gcmtravelstats.com

• GCM Travel Stats is a site that provides
  historical travel time information and charts and
  is operated by a small private company named
  RoadStats, LLC located in Schaumburg, IL.
• Although GCM Travel Stats is a separate site from
  GCM Travel, GCM Travel Stats depends upon the
  information provided by the GCM Priority Corridor
  to generate its historical data. GCM Travel Stats
  would not be possible without the cooperation and
  support of the GCM Priority Corridor.

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Current Site Operation Questions

• 11 statements
• Users asked to state agreement / disagreement
  with each statement
• Focus on site usability and performance
• 84 overall satisfaction

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Current Site Question Highlights

• Most agreement
• 98.48 responded No to the statement The
  charts are too large.
• Least agreement
• 55.33 responded No to the statement The drop
  down list of road segments is too long.

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Current Site Question Responses
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Current Site Question Responses
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Current Site Question Responses
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Current Site Question Responses
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Current Site Question Responses
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Current Site Question Responses
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Proposed Features

• 10 proposed features
• Categories
• Site Personalization
• Alternative means of access to data
• RSS, On-Demand Emails, Mobile Device Formatted
  Pages
• 5 point scale
• 1 proposed feature is of no value
• 3 proposed feature is somewhat valuable
• 5 proposed feature is very valuable
• 3.52 average overall score for all proposed
  features

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Proposed Feature Highlights

• Personalization was most important to users
• Highest average score of 4.25 was for The
  ability to save a list of your favorite road
  segments
• Most desired alternative means of access was RSS
  feeds with an average score of 3.77
• Only 2 of 10 had average score below 3.0
• Personalize color scheme
• Choose chart size

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Proposed Feature Scores
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Pay For Features

• Determine true value of proposed features
• Asked user their willingness to pay
• Operational Cost Recovery / Subscription Model
• Fee would only apply to new features
• All existing features remain free of charge

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Pay For Features Response

• If a majority of the proposed new features that
  you found at least somewhat valuable were added
  to the site, how much would you be willing to pay
  to access these new features?
• 3 per month 4.1
• 2 per month 7.1
• 1 per month 16.2
• Not willing to pay 72.6

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Other Things Learned

• 77.7 of people have told others about the site
• 68.5 have the site bookmarked
• 43.7 of people visit the site either once or
  twice per day
• 18 visit more than two times per day
• 37 visit less than once per day
• 73.1 of people say they spend 3 minutes or less
  on each visit to the site
• 46.2 use the site exclusively for their daily
  commute
• 37 use the site for both their daily commutes
  and for special commutes such as attending a
  baseball game
• 16.8 use the site only for special commutes

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Demographics

• 49.5 of respondents live in Chicago
• 41.8 live in the Chicago suburbs
• 5.2 live in Wisconsin
• 83.4 of respondents were male
• 29.5 of respondents were aged 25-29
• 68.4 were aged 25-39
• 2 of users were 65
• 7.8 of users were

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Optional Feedback

• Free form text
• 39 of respondents provided feedback
• Main classification of responses
• Feature suggestions
• Custom segments
• Integration with Google maps
• Predictive Travel Times
• Praise
• General Comments
• Data accuracy concerns

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Free Form Text Responses (Cont.)

• Site needs better usage documentation
• Requests for features that already exist
• One Stop Shop site for travel info
• Current, historical, predictive travel times
• Weather, incidents, construction, GIS / mapping,
  mass transit alternatives
• Requests for data for roads without sensors
• Power user request for access to raw data to do
  individual in-depth analysis

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Planned Enhancements

• Based on survey results, 3-6 month focus
• Address concerns raised about current site
  operation
• A number of the popular personalization options
• At least one of the alternative modes of access
• RSS, On-Demand Emails, Mobile Device Formatting
• Some implementation of Custom Segments
• FAQs / Documentation
• Specific request from UIC / IDOT
• Incorporate smoothed / weighted average into
  charts

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Looking To The Future

• Pursue opportunities with IDOT / other agencies
• Development of predictive travel time model
• Initial talks with NIU
• Class project with Kellogg grad students
• Initiated contact with UIC
• One Stop Shop travel info site
• Imagine Weather Underground, GCM Travel, GCM
  Travel Stats, RTA Trip Planner, Google Maps,
  predictive travel time model, real-time mass
  transit performance (e.g. Metra Milwaukee
  District West Line train 2228 is running 4
  minutes behind) rolled into one site

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Contact Info

• Brian J. Saville / RoadStats, LLC
• 847-909-5560
• bsaville_at_ottercreektechnologies.com
• http//www.gcmtravelstats.com
• View this presentation, with additional slides,
  at
• http//www.gcmtravelstats.com/ATTF1106.ppt
• Detailed Survey Results Will Be Made Available On
  Request