Information is power (and money) , so let us limit and control the accessibility of information. Or at least, that is what many public transport companies think. The recent publicized row between Google and the Washington Metro is only the tip of the iceberg.
Google has quietly introduced Google Transit, an extension to Google Maps, making it possible to plan a trip including public transportation. The specifications for (feeding) the schedules have been made public and open for anybody to use. You can build your own online planner if you like using the available API’s.
A perfect base for a rapid development of very valuable tools, one should think. Unfortunately many public transport companies are very reluctant to share their timetable, believing that this will undermine their position. Very old-school thinking: get linked, connect and share, that is where the money is.
They have missed apparently also a solid piece of research. Dr. Caspar Chorus has shown in his thesis that people are not willing to pay for travel information for public transport, while at the same time spending serious money on satnav systems. The psychology driving this difference is very straightforward: you are not in control when using public transport, you are being transported as a subject, you have to subject yourself to the time table. Paying extra for information is like adding insults to injuries.
In your car however you make all the decisions, you are in control, so information has value.
As public transport companies are rarely subjected to competitive pressures to win the hearts and minds of their customers, it will probable take a long time before they start to realize that they would benefit from freely sharing this information.
